


The Masterharper of Pern: The Ninth Pass of Pern, version 2.0

by silveradept



Series: The Suck Fairy's Greatest Hits: The Dragonriders of Pern [20]
Category: Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Bullying, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Child Prodigy, Childbirth, F/M, Fat Shaming, Fridging, Hazing, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Imprisonment, Meta, Misogyny, Natural Disasters, Nonfiction, Sanctioned Abuse, Sexism, Slut Shaming, Spanking, Starvation, Suicidal Thoughts, Swearing, Toxic Masculinity, boundary violations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:21:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 46,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26031085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/pseuds/silveradept
Summary: A commentary read with excerpts of The Masterharper of Pern, a novel of a revised Ninth Pass of Pern, part of the Dragonriders of Pern novels.
Relationships: Kasia/Robinton (Dragonriders of Pern), Merelan & Robinton (Dragonriders of Pern), Merelan/Petiron (Dragonriders of Pern)
Series: The Suck Fairy's Greatest Hits: The Dragonriders of Pern [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663699
Comments: 6
Kudos: 4





	1. Did We Really Need This?

**Author's Note:**

> This is the Director's Cut of meta originally posted at [Slacktiverse](https://slacktiverse.wordpress.com).
> 
> Content notes for each chapter are in their respective posts, and all content notes in the work are in the tags.
> 
> Director's commentary will be rendered _[in a manner like this.]_

We've managed our way through another story of Pern, the place that continues to find new ways to suck, despite the fact that we've been down this road multiple times. And now, we get to take a swing at the life story of who should be a dear figure to all of us, except for the part where the narrative has shown him to be manipulative and in favor of essentially holding a horrible system static and unchanging. Here we go again.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter I: Content Notes: Childbirth**

We come barreling in medias res into the point right after Robinton is born to Merelan, his mother, and delivered to Petiron, his father, Menolly's eventual mentor at Half-Circle, to keep a hold of, and we're already skirting perilously close to NOPE territory.

> He didn't see the looks passing between midwife and her assistant, nor did he see the younger woman leave quietly to summon a healer. Merelan's bleeding was not tapering off. The midwife suspected that something had been torn; the baby had been born breech, and was large-headed as well. She packed ice in towels around Merelan's slim hips. It had been a long labor. Merelan lay limp in the bed, exhausted, her face white and lined. She seemed bloodless, and that worried Betrice more. There was such a risk in transfusion: despite the similarity in color, blood differed from person to person. Once long ago, healers had known how to tell the difference and match the blood. Or so she'd heard.  
>  Betrice had suspected that Merelan would have trouble delivering, for she could feel the size of the child in the womb, and so she had asked the Healer Hall to stand by. There was a solution of special salts that in extreme cases could help a patient overcome the loss of blood.

So help us all, if this starts as a story where the mother dies in childbirth, there will be a _wall of swearing_ that will last for pages.

It is a useful reminder, however, that we are back in the pre-AIVAS era of science and medicine, and so I am really surprised at this knowledge of salts that encourage clotting and blood production. Even as they acknowledge they've lost the ability to type blood, if someone were, say, worried about blood loss during labor, and they had the requisite methods to do so and keep it sterile and safe, why wouldn't they just take a couple units from Merelan well beforehand? That's blood that can safely be transfused back into her later, regardless of whether you can type it or not.

Mostly, though, that seems rather advanced medicine to have this concoction to deliver.

The narrative tells us that Betrice has a low opinion of Petiron's parenting skills, and how lucky they are to have a child, given that Merelan has miscarried three times already. The Healer returns with the midwife's apprentice, and the three of them set to infusing a clear liquid into Merelan, using needlethorn as the delivery system. Blood plasma, perhaps, which is usually safe to give to anyone, regardless of origin? That would require a centrifuge of some sort to spin blood into component parts. Which would suggest that the methods that Capiam figured out in the Sixth Pass survived to this point in time.

In any case, with the help of the women, and having her son nearby, Merelan stabilizes, and all three attendees agree that Petiron should not be trying for another child, even though it's obvious all across Pern how the two of them love each other. They also agree to suggest fostering when Merelan will inevitably object to only having one child to care for. At this point, I remind everyone that Pern does not have viable birth control anywhere, despite this being a perfect situation for it.

Petiron is against fostering, and Betrice thinks it's because he's jealous of his son getting to spend time with his wife. Betrice's husband, Masterharper Gennell, thinks it's obsession over Petiron's Moreta Cantata that's using Merelan as principal soloist, and that Petiron does love his son.

> Betrice firmed her lips together. "Loves him, does he?"  
>  "You doubt it?"  
>  She regarded her spouse critically. "I do." She curled her hand around his arm. "But then I have you as an example. You were a eager to tend the first of our five as the last, and they have certainly turned out well. Oh, Petiron **looks** in the cot now and then, or at the child when he's toddling in the yard, but only if you remind him that he's fathered a son."

Neglectful parenting is a thing, but this picture is in contrast to the Petiron we met briefly through Menolly's eyes, at least potentially. Menolly seemed to think of him as a warmer and more interested figure, but then again, she also had significant musical talent, and so maybe he was kinder to her than he would have been to others. _[The comments on the original point out that Menolly's Petiron is older and possibly suffering from arthritis or some other disease where he's going to need care, and he doesn't want to go the same route as Old Uncle, so he turns on the charm with Menolly much more. As we'll see, though, he's also very consistent about his belief that all people with musical talent should go to Harper Hall and be trained.]_

Merelan sings well, to great applause, but Betrice makes sure that she takes a "restorative drink" in between performances and is unsurprised when Merelan takes ill after the performance is finished. She complains to Gennell that Petiron only cares about Merelan's voice. Gennell disputes it by telling Betrice all about their early days and how obviously smitten with each other they were. _[Which is a non-sequitur. Petiron can still love Merelan primarily to solely because of her voice and do plenty of things that look like a more deep love. Especially, as we'll see, with how much Merelan does and is used to smoothing things over in Petiron's wake.]_

The narrative takes a short trip to remind us that we are in the time where five of the six Weyrs have been empty for centuries and even the Harpers only have cryptic entries and the Question Song as a result. Gennell makes a mental note to reinstate the song as a required teaching ballad, as we go over the speculation of what happened to the dragons and the fairly widespread belief at this time that Thread will not fall again. We know better, and that this is the end of the second Long Interval caused by Jaxom, Ruth, and a lot more dragons detonating antimatter engines on the wandering planet to send it out of Pern's orbit, eventually. Still, it's been nearly five hundred years since Thread has fallen. How many people would take seriously a dire warning from the 1500s about the return of something deadly in the next ten years?

Since Merelan isn't getting better at the Harper Hall, Betrice arranges for Petiron and Merelan to take a teaching position back near where Merelan grew up and sends them with the Ritecamp trader train to get there, so that the two can teach and Merelan can recover.

> Then she [Merelan] winked at her spouse, knowing very well that he hated doing "basics" with beginners, while she enjoyed teaching the very young. So long as the children were taught, it didn't matter who did the teaching. As Mastersinger, she knew her Teaching Ballads and Songs as well as Petiron did.  
>  [...Petiron is stiff at first, but seems to be warming up to everyone...]  
>  He even enjoyed the nightly music sessions, for almost everyone in the thirty wagons of the train played some instrument and could carry intricate parts. Many had good voices, and he found himself conducting four- and five-part harmonies to some of their favorite ballads and airs, as well as teaching them the newer songs.  
>  "They're nearly as good as fourth-year apprentices," he said with some surprise to Merelan at the end of the third evening's session.  
>  "They do it for fun," she said gently.  
>  "There's no reason they cannot do it better and have fun, too," he said, not at all pleased at her subtle rebuke over his attempt to improve the harmonies.

Okay, Petiron needs to loosen up a lot if he's going to do anything with his life other than be tucked away in a corner composing. Now, that may be what he actually wants to do with his life, but this kind of monomania is not a sign of being able to relate healthily to other humans without significant training. _[Petiron does not loosen up.]_

As it turns out, the two are alone in their wagon, with Robinton in a crib in a different wagon, and so Petiron and Merelan take the opportunity to have sex. Which is totally a thing that someone would do if they've been raising a child for so long and haven't had the opportunity in a good long while. But that also runs the risk of a pregnancy that Merelan will have complications with. Again, birth control would be lovely here.

The narrative tells us that getting Petiron out of the Harper Hall allows him to mellow out significantly and appreciate things like hunting, fishing, long walks, and learning to be economical with his composition surfaces. Merelan recovers nicely in the fresh air and exercise along the way. Not too far from their final destination, the Runner Station that the train has stopped at hints that things out in the backwoods are not what someone from the city would expect.

> Sev scratched his head. "They got odd notions, you might say."  
>  Merelan knew there was something that he was not saying, he she couldn't understand his sudden reticence.  
>  "Ah, d'you have something that isn't Harper blue?" he blurted.  
>  "I do," Merelan said, "but I don't think Petiron does. You mean, he might aggravate someone?" She smiled to show that she perfectly understood.  
>  "Ah, yes, that's about the size of it."  
>  "I'll see what I can do about keeping him occupied," she said, smiling sympathetically.  
>  Everything went very well the first two days. The morning of the third, Merelan was entertaining all the children with game songs and teaching them the gestures that went with them, when a very tattered girl, eyes wide with delight, moved with surreptitious stealth closer and closer. When she was near enough, Merelan smiled at her.  
>  "Do you want to join us?" she asked in a carefully soft voice.  
>  The girl shook her head, her eyes wide now with a mixture of longing and fear.  
>  "Oh, please, everyone else is here," Merelan said, doing her best to reassure the timid child. "Rob, open the circle and let her in, will you, dear?"  
>  The child took another step and then suddenly squealed when she saw a man charging from the trader's wagon, right at Merelan's circle.  
>  "You there...stop that, you harlot. You evil creature, luring children away from their parents..."  
>  [...a near-melee breaks out as the man is restrained from hitting Merelan...]  
>  "She's singing, ent she? Singing comes first, don't it? Singing to lure kids away! She's evil. Just like all harperfolk. Teachin' things no one needs to know to live proper.  
>  [...the struggle continues...]  
>  "Harper harlot!" Rochers shouted, trying to free a fist to wave at Merelan, who was clinging to Robinton as much as he was clinging to her.  
>  "She's **not** a harper, Rochers. She's a mother, amusing the kids," the Station Master said, loudly enough to try and down out what the man was saying.  
>  "She had 'em dancing!" Spittle was beginning to form in the corners of his mouth as the men pulled him back to the wagons.

They hustle Merelan out of sight back into a wagon while things get sorted. Merelan was wrong about what was going on, but I'm thoroughly intrigued by this development. Could we have finally found ourselves the long-lost and sorely needed contingent that doesn't fall in line with the Harper orthodoxy? Well, we could have, if the narrative wasn't immediately squashing that idea by insisting that these people are only that way because they're backwoods hicks afraid that their children might learn about the big wide world out there and leave.

> "We run into some real odd folk now and then. Some of 'em have never met a harper, and some don't hold with singing or dancing or drinking. Sev says it's because they can't make wine or beer, so it has to be evil. They don't want their children to know more than they did or you'd better believe it--" and Dalma gave a sour little laugh, "--they couldn't keep them from leaving those awful jungles."  
>  "But it was the way he said 'harper'..." Merelan swallowed at the tone of hatred in which the word has been uttered.

Good on you, Merelan. It's easy to dismiss someone as just a hick that's ignorant, but there's more going on than just that here, and I want to know what it is. This is a potentially stellar worldbuild - what kind of folk belief system has appeared in the absence of the official doctrine? Why music as the evil thing, and Harpers as the evil people that bring it? Is there a dismissed or disgraced Harper leading this competing belief system? A Holder who had all his children go away to Crafthalls and never return? Tell me, dammit! The traders and runners clearly know more than they're letting on.

Also, personally, I would use "siren," not "harlot," for better connotation. Yes, Pern had all of its classical civilization education dumped before the second Pass, but surely that word would have survived in the meaning of someone who sings beautifully to lure people to harm, perpetuated by the Harpers if nobody else.

_[Unfortunately, we won't see any of this in any sort of detail. Much like how Thella and Aramina could have been an in-depth look at how life is for people who don't have nobility, guild status, land, or warrants for their behavior that will allow them to move freely about the place and do work, this tour of the Harpers out to places far away from the cities is a perfect set-up for developing what rural life is like on Pern and telling us what the average peasant thinks about events both large and small. But because Pern is really only interested in the same things that the SCA is interested in, things that would be hobbies for the gentry, instead of building out a complete world, all we will get are these little scraps that there are absolutely other opinions out there than Harper orthodoxy, that many places use them instead of Harper orthodoxy, and that there's an entire folk belief system set up to examine...but no, that's all boring stuff and doesn't need to be looked at when we can have more of our city folk doing some tourism and also teaching people some small amount of learning for their lives.]_

Merelan is appalled by the state of education out here, though.

> It was true that there were really not enough harpers to do more than stop in once or twice a year, but Merelan was still shocked at the realization that there was a significant number of cots and small holdings where no one could read or count above twenty.

This is a normal function of a vassalage system. Literacy is not a valued result for anyone who doesn't need to know how to read, write, and do figures -- the nobles and the merchant class. There's no incentive. You learn your trade or you work your land, you have kids to pass it on to, and you die. When the priest comes by to teach you your prayers, you learn them by rote and leave the interpretation up to them.

There are no further incidents on the rest of the trip, and Petiron is really enjoying being able to work with his group of musicians. Petiron also is busily sucking up as many variations as he can hear on the various ballads and songs, some that have gotten complex to the point where Petiron isn't sure which is the original and which is the variant. All this notation, though, means he's running out of tanned hide to make scores on.

> To transcribe this, Petiron acquired some of the reed-based writing material that was a local product. It had a tendency to absorb so much ink that his scores were a bit blotchy, but he could amend that when he got back to the Harper Hall.

...when was anyone going to mention that Pern has rediscovered papyrus, at the very least, if not some form of paper, already. And why is this not far more widespread across the planet? Yes, it won't have the same archival quality as hides, but most people don't need archival-quality material for their everyday needs. If one wants a highly literate society, there needs to be plenty of material to practice with! Styluses and clay. Graphite or ash sticks. Wax, for fuck's sake, although glow baskets might have meant that chandlery is a lost art. Seriously, there are a lot of ways other than ink and hide to do writing with, and yet it's taken us fifteen books before there's a one-off mention that the pre-AIVAS Pernese had something other than hides to write on! Auuuugh.

_[What else have the peasants and "simple" folk of Pern reinvented or figured out how to use that could be taken back or that would be a great solution to a problem that the Harper Hall hasn't figured out yet? We don't know! And the author doesn't care!]_

After saying hello to Merelan's family, Petiron gets where her talent comes from, and is almost contemptuous that great voices in that hold are still in the hold, rather than having all been shipped off to the Harper Hall for their use. He's also less than thrilled about their one-bedroom apartment, because it means the kid sleeps in the same room as them, and also he's a bit weirded out by the fact that just about everyone bathes in the nearby sea. Now I kind of want to go back and see if anyone ever bathes regularly and collectively in the cold waters in the north. Because yay, all sorts of potential problems if they do.

Petiron is also a bit askance at the collective workspaces, and the communal child-raising pens, many already stuffed with toys, including one supposed to resemble a fire-lizard. Petiron says they died out a long time ago, but yields to Merelan's insistence they exist because of the eggshells they leave behind that have been found. And is still not very attentive or loving to Robinton. But he goes about the business of organizing everyone into their groups and teaching, including an adult learner's class in the evening. He takes a liking to Rantou, who is one of the evening class's attendees, there because "I gotta learn so the baby won't have no stupid for a father." Rantou has the ear to be able to listen to a part and then play it back on reed pipes, and the skill to manufacture excellent instruments. He also has no desire to go to the Harper Hall, much to Petiron's consternation.

There's a useful note here in the argument, though, about music as a career for Rantou.

> "But people do learn the Teaching Ballads and Songs, as they have here," Merelan said. "As I did."  
>  "Only the usual ones, but not **all** the important ones," Petiron said sternly with a scowl. When he frowned like that, his heavy eyebrows nearly met over the bridge of his aqualine nose. Though she never tell him, Merelan adored his eyebrows. "They don't know the Dragon Duty Ballads, for instance."  
>  Merelan suppressed a sigh. Was it only people brought up in strict Harper Hall tradition who believed Thread **would** , not just **might** return in the next fifty or so Turns? Or was their belief merely an extension of the traditions of the Hall?

So tell me more about these competing beliefs, author. And whether that might have given rise to the anti-Harper faction we saw a small glimpse of. And whether people in places that don't have a Weyr nearby find the Harpers somewhat silly for their strict adherence to traditions that seem very outdated at this point. _[After all, the author has had a vested interest in proving anti-Thread people to be wrong and silly before, and since it's Merelan, a woman, who is telling Petiron, a man, that he might be wrong, that's exactly the kind of thing where the author will smugly make Merelan wrong, although it might be someone else who dies, because she's close enough to the Good Guys not to get fridged yet.]_

Petiron and Merelan continue to argue, with Merelan sensibly pointing out that a small population area generally doesn't have extra people to spare for Crafthall education. Petiron counters with the idea that they sent two off to Benden Weyr, and Merelan dismisses that as special circumstances due to the great honor being Searched is. Then the narrative has Petiron blanch entirely at the idea of Robinton being taught swimming, even before he has mastered walking, because of the danger involved. Merelan thinks the trip has been fantastic, even as she wishes she could stay on longer, and that Petiron looks his best and has learned his most about what life is like outside scholarship. Now, if only he would be more attentive and like his son more...

As they sit on the beach, and the chapter is basically over, Petiron wants to have Merelan to himself in the shade for sex, and Merelan readily agrees. "Segonia has given me a potion that will make it safe all the time for us."

_[Cocowhat! Because inquiring minds want to know:]_

WELL. DID IT WORK? Because if it does, then there is, in fact, birth control on Pern and _**every woman and every Healer should already know about it and be able to prescribe it.**_ Dragonriders have their own method, of course, but you are _not_ going to sell me on the idea that there is effective birth control on a route that is visited by trading caravans, has Healers on staff, and that it has not spread itself completely through Pern, overtly or covertly. So I want to know...does it work?

(It does, or at least appears to have worked, peeking into Chapter II, because Robinton is still the only child of Merelan and Petiron.)


	2. It Does Not Get Better

Last chapter (and what a long one that was, about double-size), Robinton was born and Petiron and Merelan took a trip away from the Harper Hall on a teaching assignment, where they met a group of people that consider Harpers evil, and Petiron couldn't get over himself enough to appreciate people just doing music without planning on making a career out if it.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter II: Content Notes: Child Abuse**

Back at the Harper Hall, Petiron is composing when he hears someone humming the tune he is trying to get down on hide before he loses it. He traces the sound to its source...

> "Don't **do** that, Robinton," he said in exasperation.  
>  His son pulled the light blanket up to his chin. "You were," he said.  
>  "I was what?"  
>  "You hummmmdded."  
>  "I may, you may not!" And Petiron shook his finger right in the boy's face so that Robinton pulled the blanket over his head. Petiron pulled it down and leaned over the little bed. "Don't you ever mimic me like that. Don't you ever interrupt me when I'm working. D'you hear that?"

> "Whatever did he do, Petiron?" Merelan exclaimed, rushing into the room and hiding protectively at the head of the cot. "He was sound asleep when I left. What's been going on?"  
>  Robinton, who rarely cried, was weeping, stuffing the end of the blanket into his mouth as the tears crept down his cheeks. The tears were more than Merelan could endure, and she picked up her sobbing son and cradled him, reassuring him.  
>  Petiron glared at her. "He was humming while I was writing."  
>  "You do; why shouldn't he?"  
>  "But I was writing! How can I work when he does that? He **knows** he's not to interrupt me."  
>  "He's a child, Petiron. He picks up on anything he hears and repeats it."  
>  "Well, I'm not having him humming along with me," Petiron said, not the least bit mollified.  
>  "Why shouldn't he if you wake him up?"  
>  "How can I possibly work if you're both interrupting me all the time?" He flung his arms up and stalked out of the bedroom. "Do take him somewhere else. I can't have him singing in the background."

> Merelan was already halfway across the sitting room, her crying son in her arms. "Then you won't have him in the background at all," she said in a parting shot.

You go, Merelan. And don't come back to him, because he's never going to get better. _[Of course, it's never that easy when you genuinely believe that the relationship could be fixed or made better, or if there were something else you could do that would put things back the way they were. It's just that Robinton is the thing that is getting in the way, even though he doesn't yet understand why. And that he'll need even more talking and therapy to understand that it's not his fault that Petiron is this way, either.]_

Merelan goes to see Betrice about it, where we learn that Robinton hums on key with whatever he's hearing. And that Merelan is trying to get Robinton to remember to be quiet when Daddy's working, which does not bode well for how this is going to turn out. The studio that Petiron has to do composition with is currently taken over by someone else, so that option is out, and Betrice is not a fan of Petiron's complicated compositions that only he and his family seem to be able to sing well. Merelan doesn't deny they're intricate, and says that Petiron is easier to deal with when composing (Ding! Abuse likelihood goes up!) and Betrice says Petiron is lucky to have an understanding mate that can also sing (which is not the signal I want from a friend if I'm contemplating leaving his ass.) Merelan resolves to make sure the studio stays unoccupied by anyone else, and says that in another year, Robinton will be attending school at the Hall, and that will make things better, too. (No, it won't.) Betrice tells Merelan to do something for herself while she watches Robinton, because it's no good for Merelan to either have to mind her child or her husband all the time.

Time passes, and it turns out that Robinton certainly has musical talent, given that he picks up a pipe at three and can make good sounds with it...

> When Petiron was busy with students, Merelan would often whistle simple tunes within her son's hearing. Petiron did not like her whistling--possibly because he couldn't, but more likely because he felt that girls shouldn't. Despite how much she loved him, she privately admitted that some of his attitudes, including this one, made no sense to her.

Because _he's an asshole!_ _[One of the commenters to the original suggests that this might be related to a superstition that girls and women whistling can only bring bad luck, which was something I had not heard of, but if that's the justification for it, nobody explicitly acknowledges it. Instead, it's much more like the background radiation of toxicity and misogyny that permeates Pern.]_

Anyway, Robinton picks up on the whistles, repeats them, then begins to improvise on them in a way that makes it clear he's got the knack. Merelan wants to make sure that this talent gets hidden as long as possible, so that Robinton isn't rushed prematurely into musical training at the Hall that might put him off music entirely. At _three_. Even though Merelan knows Petiron will do it. So she calls over Washell, ostensibly to help her with a part, deliberately botches it, then lets Robinton play it correctly. As well as his favorite tunes on the pipe, and his variations on that tune, including a new one just thought up while playing the others. Washell gets it, and plans with Merelan to figure out a way of breaking Robinton's musicality to Petiron gently enough that Petiron won't break him in his single-mindedness. The plan is, thay by contrivance and "accident", each of the masters involved should teach Robinton some small thing about their craft, enough so that when he turns out to be a musical genius at six, they can all disclaim they did anything at all and then deliver Robinton to his father as a student that won't try his patience. Robinton himself, however, is the spanner in the plan because he wants to show his compositions and talents to his music-loving father and keeps getting deflected away from it by his mother.

One day, Robinton comes back from a class with Kubisa, one of the child instructors, with a bloody nose, crying.

> "I'll say this for Robie, he may be young and small, but he knows who needs his protection."  
>  "Who needs it?" his mother asked, carefully mopping away the blood.  
>  "The watch-wher," Kubisa said.  
>  Merelan paused, surprised and beginning to feel more pride than concern. The apprentices were not above sticking bright glows into the Harper Hall watch-wher's lair to make the light-sensitive creature cry. Or throwing him noxious things, knowing the creature would eat just about anything that came within the range of its chain. Rob would always run and tell an adult if he saw such antics.  
>  "Were they being mean to the poor beast again?"  
>  Sniffing, he nodded his head up and down. "I made 'em stop, but one of them busted me one."  
>  "So I see," his mother murmured.  
>  [...Kubisa advises self-defense...]  
>  "I used to be able to beat some of my big brothers and cousins when I got going."  
>  "You?" Robie's eyes widened at the very notion of his mother beating anything, much less his big brothers and cousins.

So Merelan gives Robinton his first lesson in hand-to-hand combat, and showed him best how to head-butt an assailant. "It keeps you from having bloody noses, too, if you use your head in a fight." I wonder where that caring child went and how he was replaced by the manipulator we've come to know. If Petiron is responsible in some way, I will not be surprised.

Also, learning how to thrash people from your mother seems like a totally awesome thing. _[Too bad we don't see more of that kind of thing being taught, because that's the kind of stuff that makes a world come alive. Instead, with someone like Kindan, he'll get an old, wise, and slightly mystical mentor to help him learn how to fight with swords so he can intimidate another boy over the theoretical honor of two girls.]_

The subterfuge, of course, is not going to last long. On hearing that he is learning his ballads and songs appropriately, Robinton sees the opportunity to shine.

> Robinton wanted so desperately to please his father, but he never seemed able to, despite how hard he tried to be good, obedient, courteous, and most of all, quiet.

Petiron cannot be satisfied that way, Robinton. Abusers cannot be satisfied that way. Even when you sing something note-perfect, which Robinton does, they will never be satisfied. 

> "That was well done, Robinton," he said. "Now don't think that learning one song is all you have to do. There's a significant number, even for children, to be learned, word- and note-perfect. Continue as you have begun."  
>  Robinton beamed with pleasure, turning to his mother to see if she also agreed.  
>  Merelan could barely keep from sobbing with relief as she came forward and tousled his hair. "You have done very well indeed, my love. I'm proud of you, too. Just as your father is." She turned to Petiron for his reassurance, but he had already turned back to the apprentice scores he was correcting, oblivious to son and spouse.  
>  Merelan had to clench her hands to her sides to keep from roaring at him for such a curt dismissal. There was so much more Petiron could have said. He could have mentioned that the boy was on pitch throughout, with good breath support and that his voice was actually good. But she controlled her anger and took Robie, who couldn't quite understand why he hadn't pleased his father more, by the hand.  
>  "We'll just see," she said in a firm, loud voice, "what Lorra might have as a reward for knowing **all** the verses and the tempi perfectly!"  
>  When she slammed the door behind her, Petiron glanced over his shoulder, then went back to marking a very poorly executed apprentice lesson.

Okay, at this point, I have to entertain the possibility that Petiron might have something in his brain wiring that makes things like this sequence bizarre to him - he heard a good performance, he complimented it and encouraged it, and yet his wife slams the door as she stalks outside. He's probably going to chalk it up to something with Merelan, but I wouldn't be surprised if a neurologist found something abnormal about Petiron's brain. Which doesn't excuse him from the issues involved, but might help him and everyone around him figure out ways to relate that don't involve hurt feelings from unfulfilled expectations.

The other option is that he's an asshole who doesn't care about his son and possibly resents him for taking him away from his perfect life.

_[Both? Both. Both is good. Having a neurodivergence doesn't exempt you from asshole behavior, but it might mean different learning methods, or impressing upon someone the importance of following the politeness script, or otherwise teaching a person about what the social expectations are of someone. Or the parental ones. But, instead, because we lack the psychological professionals to help with this on Pern, and because there's a fair amount in this story that suggests Petiron's musical genius has been catered to by the Harper Hall to the point where he's never had to learn how to change his behavior, or be social, or otherwise be anything other than the musical genius, we instead get someone who believes he is entitled to have the world run the way he wants, and that includes his wife being perfect for him and his son having a perfect adult understanding of everything and how to cater to him, despite Robinton's age. The expectation of children performing at levels that would cause adults to have nervous breakdowns comes back with a hefty vengeance in the Todd books, and nobody on Pern, of course, bats an eye at how intensely wrong this is.]_

Merelan is spitting tacks, wants to kick Petiron for his reaction. Lorra, the headwoman (and therefore counselor), points out, not wrongly, that Petiron's expectations for Robinton are perfection and therefore there will be no validation or "Well done, son!" for him, even if he is better than many apprentices more than a decade older than he is. This dissipates Merelan's anger instead of stoking it, for some reason, even when Lorra lets on that it's unlikely Petiron will notice his son has become a man until his voice cracks. In theory, this inattentiveness will benefit Robinton, in that he will be able to be freely musical around Petiron.

The chapter ends with talk of a new holder daughter, Halanna, arriving at the hall and being put in with the Hold girls while she adjusts to the routine. I hope she fares a lot better than Menolly ever did, both with the girls and in the Hall itself.

As was noted in the last post, this is a very different Hall from when Menolly arrived, with women, and women in teaching and mastery positions. I probably wouldn't have noticed it until now, so it's very nice to have commenters that can point things out to me earlier than I might have picked up on it myself. Yet, somewhere in between now and her arrival, the Hall will apparently be purged of women. I doubt we'll ever find out the how or the why.

_[This is the biggest and most obvious sign that the Ninth Pass that we are seeing now is a reconstruction and attempt to update things to better fit with the change in attitudes since we last were in the Ninth Pass. It creates some serious continuity snarls by asking us to believe that there have always been women everywhere, just mysteriously not noticed or not encountered by previous protagonists, and that other people who were touted as being the first are actually not the first, or might only be the first in some time. This creates some interesting situations, in that between now, where Merelan is a Mastersinger in her own right, and Menolly, the Harper Hall will somehow have lost all of their women in teaching and studying positions and forgotten that they ever had them, within the living memory of Petiron and Robinton, such that Menolly can be mistaken for being one of the paid students, like Halanna is, rather than someone being sent to study in the Hall as an apprentice. Pern's canon has always been "do what works, fix what's broke, ignore the rest," but from this point forward, trying to reconcile the continuity is a Herculean labor with each successive book.]_


	3. It Only Gets Worse

Last chapter, we set up a fundamental problem between Petiron and his family where Robinton does very well, but only gets cursory praise from Petiron, to Merelan's quite intense anger. This won't end well.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter III: Content Notes: Slut-shaming, sanctioned abuse, imprisonment, spanking, child abuse**

First, however, we have to deal with Halanna, the new Hold daughter sent to the hall to study music. Who is naturally talented in her voice, certainly, but...

> Halanna arrived, and created an instant impression on all who met her of an overly-confident seventeen-Turn-old young woman who found fault with everything at the Harper Hall, and especially the cottage where she was lodged.  
>  [...she's what we might call a diva...]  
>  The only one who found her at all bearable was Petiron. Once he heard her sing, he dismissed Merelan's remarks about her lack of discipline and a lack of general information about music that was close to illiteracy. He was jubilant over having a contralto with such a rich timbre and wide range with no "break" whatever. He immediately began to write contralto solos into the Turnover music he was currently composing. He discounted Merelan's suggestions that the girl would not be able to "read" the contralto line, much less manage the tempi changes or the cadenzas.  
>  [...Merelan uses every single bit of pull she has trying to teach Halanna the fundamentals of music, but getting written in by Petiron only inflates Halanna's ego more...]  
>  She sang **loudly** , completely ignoring any dynamic alteration for the appropriate performance of a song or aria, concerned only with showing off the power of her vocal equipment. "Soft" was an unknown quality.

Merelan asks for help from Washell, who dryly notes that if Halanna continues in this vein, she'll kill her voice in a couple of Turns, and the problem will solve itself. Washell thinks that when Halanna botches Petiron's composition, he'll have much less infatuation with her. Merelan thinks that might make Petiron think of her as a poor teacher, but Washell had a plan.

Hold that thought in mind, however, while the narrative continues to make sure there's nothing we're supposed to like about Halanna.

> Halanna was an accomplished flirt, and quickly isolated those whom she would favor--because of their rank, either from within the Hall, or from prestigious holds. She chose only the attractive journeymen and masters, of whom there were quite a few just then, back at the Hall either for reassignment or to take part in the Turnover rehearsals. Not only did she have a voice, even her worst enemies had to admit that she was a beauty. Blond hair bleached almost silver by the sun of Ista, a flawless tan that accentuated her light green eyes and white, even teeth, a figure more mature than that of most girls her age--and she knew far more than she ought of how to flaunt her sensuality. She did not obey the cottage keeper's basic rules, deciding they were for children and not the daughter of a holder, though all the other boarders were the same rank, and some more prestigious than hers. She was caught time and again sneaking in late at night.  
>  Then Halanna took a dislike to Robinton.

And there's our nail in the coffin, everyone. It couldn't have been anything else that might have signaled that the narrative might not like Halanna, but if she dislikes Robinton, then we know she's bad. (Her dislike of Robinton is mostly contained to the same reasons Petiron didn't like Robinton - she doesn't like being overheard and she thinks he's a distraction.)

Seriously, though, if you wanted to set up an anti-Menolly, you'd be hard-pressed to do better than Halanna. She seems to be the Harper equivalent of Kylara, and her primary sin seems to be that she's sexy and she knows it, followed very closely by the part where she expects the world to fall at her feet and give her everything she wants. At this point, I'm starting to feel like the narrative has a serious case of A-Cup Angst, since everyone who's had a canonically highly attractive body seems to have also been made a terribly slutty-slut villain of some sort. I think the author has a type.

Merelan eventually gets so fed up with Halanna that she passes her off to Petiron, who only needs a single lesson to realize the terrible truth about Halanna. Petiron believes his wife's accounts of how difficult Halanna is to work with (Yay!) and sets to rewrite the part to match the actual skill Halanna displays.

_[Why does Petiron ignore all the other people in his Hall telling him that Halanna doesn't have the knowledge, even if she might have the chops to sing the part he wants her to? This seems less like "eccentric genius knows the hidden potential of the singer" and more like "petulant child refuses to own up to reality until they can't ignore it any more." One of the people he's ignoring is his wife, and we already know that Petiron's relationship with Merelan is such that he makes demands or otherwise behaves boorishly, and she arranges things to give him what he wants and/or smooth things over with the other people he's upset, but Petiron's a composer with a good ear for listening, but that doesn't mean he knows word one about teaching anybody, and we've already seen that he hates teaching the basics to anyone. Yet, somehow, he's convinced that Halanna can sing complex things right out from the gate without any training, despite the fact that she's not likely to have been instructed in musical notation, or dynamic range, or any of the other things that someone who sings or makes music for a profession would be expected to know and that someone who joins in the folk songs that are learned more by memory than by notations wouldn't have the slightest idea about. Halanna's here because her singing is pretty and she wants to make it better. That means nothing at all about how well or poorly she can learn music. (I can read notation and play an instrument. That does not mean I can sight-sing a cantata, nor play any of Dream Theater's complex drum parts upon looking at them, even if I can look at the notation and have an inkling of how it goes. Anyone who thinks that I could, just upon hearing my play my instrument for a bit, is a terrible judge of character and musicality.)]_

Naturally, when presented with the changes, Halanna and Petiron have an argument that gets overheard by everyone, whether they want to hear it or not. And then...

> Many allowed as how they had heard the crack of flesh hitting flesh. And it was true that the right side of Halanna's face was darker than the left when she was finally allowed to leave the studio. But she did begin to sing in a much muted voice. And she continued to sing the music as written until she did so correctly, sometimes until she was hoarse.  
>  [Halanna pops out and secretly sends a message to her father that she's being abused.]  
>  Petiron admitted that he had slapped her, to stop her hysterical ranting--to which everyone in the Hall had been audience. Any master was permitted to chastise a student for inattention or failure to learn assigned lessons.

So Clisser not only won out, it's considered a best practice to beat your students. We knew that already, as far back as Dragonsong, but it's still a terrible idea if you want them to learn and think on their own.

Also, because it must be said,

But we're not done yet.

> When MasterHarper Gennell and Journeywoman Healer Betrice interviewed her about the impropriety of her action, not to mention the content of her messages, she was defiantly tearful.  
>  [Gennell tells Halanna she's been a guest of honor to this point and that she will apologize to Petiron.]  
>  "Apologize?" Halanna rose from the stool in amazement. "I am the daughter of a holder, and I apologize to no one. He's to apologize for slapping me, or--"  
>  "That's enough out of you," Gennell said, be turned to his spouse. "She's to be quartered in an appropriate room and given only basic rations."  
>  That was more easily said than done. It took Gennell, Betrice, and Lorra to get her, screeching and struggling, up to the third story of the Harper Hall to one of the spare rooms used by messengers or overflow guests. She refused to eat the food supplied at mealtimes and actually emptied the first three pitchers of water until her thirst got the better of her histrionics. Since it took nearly six days before her clandestine message brought results, she got hungry enough to devour what she was given, though she refused to apologize or promise to remedy her attitude. Such interviews usually resulted in her hurling threats and promises of just retribution at those trying to talk sense into her.

And again,

There's some confusion at work here, too, as to who actually outranks whom. If Halanna is the higher-ranking person, she's not being histrionic, she's right. And if she isn't, then she's still got a leg to stand on that she's being mistreated. Because this is still sanctioned abuse and everyone is basically telling Halanna that she deserves it. She does not deserve to be abused. Summarily dismissed and sent back as a student who has no interest in learning, yes, but not physically abused. But the narrative certainly took its time trying to impress upon us that Halanna is such a clearly spoiled brat and terrible _[and a boo-hiss slutty girl]_ so that we might side with the Harpers doing the abusing instead of the person being abused.

Halanna's father, Halibran, comes with a force of his sons and apologizes on behalf of his daughter, but it's not accepted by Gennell. Halibran offers to take his daughter, who is apparently screaming out her window this entire time, home, but Gennell refuses this as well.

> "With your permission, we shall continue to discipline her--firmly--until she realizes that such behavior gets her nowhere in either her relationships with others or in learning the lessons you asked us to teach her."  
>  Halibran was astonished; the brothers muttered amongst themselves.  
>  "That is too fine a voice to be misused," Master Gennell said, glancing up in the direction of the outraged cries. Strips of clothing flapped out the window and drifted to the ground. "Or abused. We have disciplined recalcitrant students before now. She may be," and Master Gennell paused significantly, "unusually obdurate, but gives me leave to doubt she is beyond redemption."

Halibran asks what the secret sauce is, and Gennell tells him that if he tells Halanna firmly that there's no way she's going to get him to budge on the matter, she'll give up.

It still takes them three days, and the narrative says that it's exhaustion that does Halanna in. And it's explicit that part of Halibran's convincing of Halanna involves spanking her.

> "He uses only his hand, and it's more her pride that's been offended than her butt end," Ginia said. "If the issue is not forced now, she will become far worse in later years and end up disgracing her entire family and hold. That can't be allowed."

So Halanna is condemned to be broken into a compliant girl _[who will stop being an embarrassment to her family]_ and then taught how to sing. It starts with apologies to Gennell, Petiron, and Beatrice, and Merelan would have been included, except Merelan refused it, since she would have to teach singing to Halanna, and she didn't want an apology to be a point of contention.

> "She brought it on herself," Halibran said sternly.  
>  "That does not require me to compound it," Merelan said, lifting her chin to match his attitude.  
>  "You are a gracious lady," he said, relenting and bowing to her.  
>  [Halanna gets her own room, and her father leaves her with instructions...]  
>  "And, if you should decide this regimen doesn't suit you," her father said in so cold a voice Merelan shivered, "and attempt to run away from the Harper Hall, I will have the drums repudiate you across all Pern. Do you understand? You wanted to sing, you wanted to come here to the Harper Hall so you could improve your voice. Now you will do just that and nothing but that! Do you understand, Halanna?"

Having been given no other option but to submit, Halanna does. We're supposed to believe it hasn't actually broken her spirit, just that she doesn't act out any more and Petiron is consequently disappointed in her performance at Turnover because she's not performing to potential. Merelan counsels patience, and the chapter ends.

I don't believe for a moment that Halanna brought it on herself. She's supposed to be the poster child for an indulgent childhood producing a spoiled brat, but the Harper Hall (and Pern, generally speaking) starts at violence and escalates when it comes to raising children, teaching apprentices, and keeping women in line. Halanna is behaving the way someone who has been told she's better than everyone else is behaving. There's a rank system in place that she presumably has learned, but I suspect she only learned it in relation to other Lords and not in relation to the Mastercrafters. She's been behaving, well, normally. It's just that the narrative has a particular dislike for her overt sexuality and so it goes out of its way to make sure we see Halanna as deserving of abuse (she isn't).

_[The comments on the original point out that this chapter doesn't have a point, other than to indulge itself in abusing Halanna and letting the reader vicariously engage in the thrill of taking someone who thinks themselves better than you down a peg in the most physical way possible, and then to have the people who should be defending her against you apologizing to you and asking for the secrets of how to break her into something more compliant. It's been saturated all throughout Pern, this idea of breaking women who are haughty or noncompliant to men and the companion idea that all women secretly want to be dominated by men, but it feels like we're saying the quiet parts out loud (again?) to the audience. At the same time, the commercial successes of Twilight and its Explicit-rated fanfic, Fifty Shades of Grey, say there's a market for fantasy literature that explores these spaces, so long as the place stays strictly on the fantasy side and doesn't try to step outside of the literary realm._

_Fandom is weird, okay?]_

So far, we seem to be regularly getting worse, not better. And we still haven't yet gotten Petiron to the point where he's likely to abuse his own son to the point of a fracture.

Next week, chapter IV.


	4. Leveling Off?

Last week, we were introduced to Halanna, who the narrative painstakingly painted as a stuck-up pain in the ass of a Holder's daughter before taking a certain amount of glee in abusing her to take her down a peg.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter IV: Content Notes:**

The end of the concert has Merelan and one of Halanna's brothers talking about her marked improvement in attitude and singing ability, having learned to play some instruments, as well as the suitability of dance partners of Halanna, before the brother asks Merelan to dance. Even so, Merelan notices that Petiron is so deep in conversation he fails to notice when Robinton plays with a group of nursery students, but she's also afraid that Petiron will eventually notice that Robinton is very much the prodigy. The narrative frames this first as Halanna noticing Robinton's talent, even though she hasn't really interacted with him much, and then we hear about all the works Robinton has composed and the drum he made... and how Merelan found it very hidden away and learned that Petiron's commentary for it was that it wasn't good enough for the Harper stamp that would have let it be sold.

Merelan realizes, essentially, that she can't talk to Petiron about Robinton, because Petiron will never actually be proud of his son unless his son is essentially perfect in all ways. Which still leaves her with the issue of her gifted child, as Kubisa tells her about how Robinton is able to help teach a child with a learning disability far better and more patiently than Kubisa can. This is a frankly impossible position for Merelan to be in.

And then Robinton learns about Thread, described this time as "bad Thread fell from the sky and hungrily are anything living it touched, from grass to runner- and herdbeasts, and even people." But Kubisa also says it's unlikely that Thread will fall in their lifetime. The day after that, actual dragons and their riders come to the Harper Hall.

And Robinton is bold enough to go up and secretly touch one, while thinking about how different the hide is from the watch-wher (ol' Nick) and wondering if they're both in the same family of dragons. The dragon (Cortath) answers Robinton, and the two have a conversation about the trip that Robinton's parents are going on and Robinton's desire for safety for them. When all is said and done, though, it seems like Robinton gets in trouble for the whole sequence.

> **"Robinton!"** his father roared, scowling his amazement. Robinton risked a nervous glance at his mother and saw her slight smile. Why was his father angry with him? He hadn't really been doing anything **wrong** , had he?  
>  "Cortath says he's enjoyed conversing with your son, Master Petiron," M'ridin said with a reassuring chuckle. "There aren't that many children these days who will, you know."  
>  Robinton's sensitive ears caught the plaintive note in the tall, bronze rider's voice. He opened his mouth to say that he'd be happy to talk to Cortath any time, when he saw his mother raise her finger in signal for him to be silent and noticed the deepening scowl on his father's face. So he looked anywhere but at the adults.  
>  "Out of the way now, boy," his father said, gesturing urgently.

The narrative helpfully supplies that Robinton believes Petiron would have struck Robinton for bothering a dragon. Because the cult of the dragonriders means a lot less people feeling like they can talk to them that aren't dragonriders.

Robinton also becomes more secretive about his compositions after having met the dragons, which is a serious change _[and suggests that he's of an age where he's putting two and three together and getting five about how he has to behave around Petiron if he wants to have the household stay happy and harmonious, which is also a pretty common thing among abused children]_ , but the narrative quickly jumps forward to the next time dragons come to the Hall. Robinton bolts to see if Cortath is among them, but he's not present. But there's also an exchange between dragons that Robinton gets to hear.

> **I call myself Kilminth and my rider is S'bran. What is your name?  
>  As if you'll remember**, said another dragon voice. It was the very dark bronze one. **It is only a child.  
>  Who hears dragons when they speak, so I will talk to him while our riders are busy. It is nice to talk to a child who hears.  
>  He's not old enough to be Searched.  
>  Don't mind Calanuth,** Kilminth told Robin in a somewhat supercilious tone. **He's too young to have much sense.  
>  Who's talking about having some sense?  
>  Oh, curl up in the sun,** and then Kilminth lowered his head down to Robinton.

That's the most conversation I've heard between two dragons in all these books that wasn't interpreted through one dragon. And it's snark between them, no less. Makes me wonder what the opinion of the dragons has been on all of these strange human things they've been dealing with.

_[Yet another of those things that we see this single glimpse of and nowhere else! There could have been books from dragon perspectives! They could snark all the time about how the humans they're bonded to think they're limited creatures when they are actually a lot more expansive than that. But no, there's only this one piece and then we never hear dragons conversing with each other without a person as an intermediary.]_

In any case, Robinton and Kilminth have a conversation about whether dragons being able to see above themselves makes them dizzy and how the dragons know when Thread is returning before S'bran returns and is happy to see there's a child there talking to the dragons. Robinton innocently inquires whether it's possible to be both a dragonrider and a Harper, and there's a lot of laughter, but no actual response one way or another. Which leads to Robinton not holding out a lot of hope for the prospect.

> They hadn't told him if he **could** be a harper and a dragonrider. So that probably meant he couldn't be. Which would please his mother. She had set her heart on his being a harper, and that would take a lot of hard work and many years.

Robinton continues to keep his conversations with the dragons close to the vest, even when he has a dream of dragons trying to tell him something and a harper that was taken on Search riding the color of dragon that he would eventually Impress.

_[In the Todd books, the supremely special harper, Kindan, manages the triple feat of having a fire lizard, a watch-wher, and a dragon all bonded to him, but all sequentially instead of simultaneously, as the fire-lizard dies, the watch-wher transfers its bond to another person (but we haven't learned about that unique ability they have yet, because the Todd books are where we get most of the lore about watch-whers), and eventually, he Impresses the dragon by accident, although not without Fiona having tried repeatedly to get him one before that. Kindan is really the perfect example of the man who fails up in every organization he's part of, and does so because he's a darling of the narrative. Anyway, in earlier books, or in the Todd books...somewhere, we have mention of Weyr Harpers who are also dragonriders, so it's certainly not out of the ordinary for someone to be both harper and dragonrider. Or it was in the past, anyway, but isn't now in Ninth Pass 2.0.]_

That ends Chapter IV, without anyone having triggered off Petiron's rage to the point where he has a meltdown. Can we make it two?


	5. Nope, Still Descending

Last chapter, Robinton got to talk to dragons. Halanna was shuffled off to the "good girls" department, and Merelan continues to hide from Petiron that his son is a genius and that she's enlisted the entire Hall to train him so that Petiron doesn't break him with his inability to be a father around him.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter V: Content Notes: Neglect**

Chapter V opens with Petiron rummaging through Merelan's desk looking for blank sheets to write on, finds copies of Robinton's compositions, glances over them, and then continues to rummage for the sheets. Merelan is ready to tee off on Petiron for invading her privacy and for his callous disregard of the composition, whose author he doesn't know.

> "Well, no need to get huffy," he said, suddenly noticing her stiff posture and angry glare. "I'll get more at lunch." He started out of the room and then turned back. "Who did write those tunes? You?" He smiled in an effort to appease her anger. "Not bad."  
>  She was so angry at his condescending smile and tone that she blurted out the truth. "Your son wrote them."  
>  Petiron blinked in astonishment. "Robie wrote those?" He started back to her worktop, but she moved swiftly from the door to stand in front of it. "My son is already writing music? You are helping him, of course," he added, as if that explained much.  
>  "He writes them with no help from anyone."  
>  "But he must have had some help," Petiron said, trying to reach around her for access to the drawer. "The scores were well-written, even if the tunes are a trifle childish." Then his jaw dropped. "How long has he been writing tunes?"  
>  "If you were any sort of father to him, paid any attention to what he does, ever asked him a single question about his classes," Merelan said, letting rip all her long-bottled up frustration, "you'd know he's been writing **music** "--she stressed the word--" for several years. You even heard the apprentices singing some of the melodies."  
>  "I have?" Petiron frowned, unable to understand either of his mate's shortcomings: not telling him about his own son's musicality and out of informing him that **apprentices** were learning songs written by his own son. "I have!" he said, thinking back to the tunefulness he'd heard from Washell's classes. Of course, the songs were suitable to the abilities of the age group but...He stared at Merelan, coming to grips with a sense of betrayal that he had never expected from her, his own spouse. "But why, Merelan? Why keep his abilities from me? His own father?"  
>  "Oh, so now he's your son, instead of mine," Merelan snapped back. "Now that he shows some prowess, he's all yours."  
>  "Yours, mine, what difference does it make? He's what--seven Turns old?"  
>  "He's **nine** Turns old," she snarled, and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.  
>  Petiron stood staring at the closed door, the echo of the definitive slam ringing in his ears, the hand that held the clean sheets held up in entreaty.  
>  "Well, I never..." And he sunk back against the worktop, struggling to cope with her attitude and this incredible revelation about his--no, **their** \--son.

I have to break this up, or it's going to be a phenomenally long quote, but we're in the middle of the narrative actually showing us everything coming to a head with Merelan, but also about to tell us how far off Petiron is from the conception of parenthood. He definitely has not been a present parent. He's shocked at the age, and resolves to look more closely at the sheets of music.

> Even if they proved only to be variations, that was creditable enough to require some special tutoring to hone a perhaps genuine gift up to a good professional standard. Why, his son could be a journeyman!

And Petiron misses the point, but also doesn't believe in Robinton's talent. And now that the truth is out, we're getting insight into how Petiron sees his family.

> But however did a man relate to his son until the boy was old enough to understand his father's precepts and philosophies? Able to accept his father's training?

Petiron decides to train his son as his own apprentice, but he can't find the music he wants to reexamine, and as he calls for his son, there's no response. Searching the room, he discovers the instruments that Robinton has been learning.

> Now Petiron began to feel a righteous anger. Merelan was behaving in a most peculiar fashion. First by her silence over Robinton's ability and then by letting someone else train **his** son...

Petiron is ready to go find his wife and son, when Gennell stops him and calls a meeting, using his position as Masterharper to get compliance, before telling him what's gone on - Gennell has assigned Merelan to Benden Hold, at her request, for a year contract and gives Petiron a dressing-down for his complete lack of involvement in his son's life, while the entire rest of the Hall has been trying to nurture Robinton's talent.

> Petiron rose indignantly. "I'm his father--have I no say in this?"  
>  "Until a boy child is twelve, it is traditional for him to be in his mother's care unless fostered to a family."  
>  "This has all been conducted with precipitous and unnecessary haste," Petiron began, clenching and unclenching his fists, trying to control the rage that was boiling up inside him. Not only were his paternal rights being denied, but why was his spouse, usually so understanding, suddenly rejecting him?  
>  [...this was not sudden at all, Petiron. Merelan had the option for a while but decided to accept it and flew away on a Benden dragon after she stormed out on you...]  
>  "If it is a mother's right to have her child until he is twelve, then I shall not interfere with her maternal instincts," he said so harshly that Gennell flinched. "At twelve I shall have him." With that, both promise and threat, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the MasterHarper's workroom.

There's a statement I've heard about authors writing particular characters, namely that they can produce the very best example of [Z] by not trying at all to write [Z], having focused entirely on [Q], instead. I'm not sure the author was trying to write a proto-MRA character that refuses to own up to his own shortcomings and abusive mindset, but the author has wrought a beauty of one here. And has not also narratively set him up as the poor man who didn't know anything and his shrew of a wife just took the child without warning. _Petiron_ thinks this, but _the narrative_ doesn't. (At least at this point.)

This is also in rather stark contrast to how the narrative handled Halanna. She was the shrew and everyone agreed it was a good idea to slap her around and imprison her into she learned that all men were her superiors, regardless of her rank. Here, because Robinton will be the most beloved man in Pern when he grows up, the narrative can't just paint Merelan as a badmeanwrong woman, because she still has to raise Robinton right.

Until Petiron gets him, anyway, and I really am not looking forward to that part of his upbringing. Here's where I wish there was a family court or some other entity that you could plead your case before to have a marriage dissolved or custody awarded in some manner so that we don't have this situation where Petiron is going to get his son back, likely as an apprentice, and then take out an his frustration and anger at Merelan on his son.

Or that Merelan could send Robinton with a plea to Gennell to never put Robinton in a class with Petiron. It would take out conflict, certainly, but it would also remove many of the avenues Petiron has to abuse Robinton.

_[Of course, the easiest course of action would be to remove Petiron entirely from the Hall, especially since he still has the reputation of being the composer who writes for his wife and nobody else, If he's not willing to put in some teaching, and to take a turn with the beginners, and be able to prove that he can, actually, teach people without losing his cool at them, then maybe he'll be able to teach people who aren't his son when his son comes back to the Hall. Or maybe he can be retired to an annex or wing where the people just do their thing and don't teach, and Robinton gets to have a proper education without ever having to see his father or have his father take part in any of his classes. Because the only way this ends is with abuse piled on by Petiron until someone breaks, and it's likely to be Robintion.]_


	6. Fleance Flies

Last chapter, the conspiracy keeping Robinton from Petiron collapsed as Merelan couldn't take it any more and told the truth. Right before going to Benden on dragonback and taking Robinton with her.

Petiron, after the initial apparent shock of realizing his son is a genius and resolving to train him, settles into a desire for revenge at the point in time where he can claim custody of Robinton. This is a problem situation that a family court would call for. But those don't exist, so Merelan has essentially just bought time.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter VI: Content Notes: Toxic masculinity**

Chapter VI shows us the escape from Robinton's perspective, including surprise at the swiftness and dragon-ness of the affair, but knowing not to ask questions because his mother's look says not to.

There's another conversation with this dragon, Spakinth, which is somewhat doubled by audible conversation with the rider, C'rob.

> "Oh, I beg your pardon! I didn't hurt you, did I?"  
>  **Of course not, the ridge is there to hold on to** , Spakinth said in the same instant C'rob laughed and said, "You won't hurt a dragon that way, lad." And then he leaned to one side and regarded Robinton with raised eyebrows. "But then Spakinth is telling you, too, isn't he?" The rider seemed surprised.  
>  Robinton grinned back, flexing his fingers around the ridge just for the feel of it. "Cortath and Kilminth have spoken to me, too."  
>  "Have they..." And then C'rob's attention was taken by Merelan's arrival behind them.

Best as I can remember, this still isn't a retcon, because I think Robinton mentioned much earlier that he was Searched, but this is, to my knowledge, the only known instance where a boy hears all the dragons and not a girl.

So everyone climbs on and they go through hyperspace and there's a charming bit of toxic masculinity.

> "That's Benden below you, lad." C'rob patted his shoulder. "And not a peep out of you. Nor did you wet your breeches."  
>  Robinton was stunned by such a shocking suggestion and stiffened under C'rob's hand. Very quietly, so not even Spakinth could hear and think badly of him, Robinton knew that, just a moment longer in frigid **between** and he might well have disgraced himself.  
>  **Many do, young Robinton, but never you.**

Right, so traveling through hyperspace is explicitly terrifying, pants-pissing terrifying, and here we are with dragonriders complimenting the lack of terror in Robinton. Who, we might note, has been whisked away from his home and not told anything nor briefed about what happens when you travel by dragon. And is also nine years old. He has every reason to be scared out of his mind. And yet, he is apparently shocked at the prospect that people are afraid, and essentially presents himself as if that would never have crossed his mind. Even if in private he's admitted to being so scared he might have pissed himself. Yay, toxicity.

Introductions are made, which gives Robinton insight into his own situation, while also giving the narrative a way of setting up a big flashing neon sign of whom we're supposed to dislike here.

> "This is Raid, my eldest son, Mastersinger," the Lord Holder said with pride, laying an arm across the boy's shoulders.  
>  A shaft of totally incomprehensible envy swept Robinton. His father had never done that. His father didn't even touch him--that he could remember. And then a girl, not as old as Raid, pushed through to Raid's other side, neatly pushing Lady Hayara aside. And Robinton caught a quickly hidden flare of dismay on Lady Hayara's face and the indifferent look on the girl's.  
>  "And this is my eldest daughter," Lord Maidir said, "Maizella."

And, in case we're not clear,

> Robinton sighed. He knew by the expression on Maizella's face and her stance that his mother was going to have trouble with this one. He saw by the quirk of his mother's mouth that she realized it, too.

Robinton, at nine, seems to have very well-developed observational skills. The kind that I would expect from a child in an abusive situation who has concluded that the best way to stay safe is to be able to predict and anticipate other people perfectly. To the point where someone can be so smoothly handled that they don't even notice it happening. We're laying the groundwork of how Robinton comes to be the person he is, and since there _still_ aren't trained psychologists and counselors on Pern, Robinton is unlikely to get the help he'll need to break this particular way of thinking and get a healthier outlook. Worse, it looks like having this particular mindset is going to be helpful to him. Poor child.

_[Also, we again have the idea that a "problem" child is one that takes up space, that asserts herself, that pushes aside to be seen and to introduce, and that otherwise is willing to be her own self, rather than to make herself lesser, invisible, only appearing when bidden and never having an opinion or even the merest whisper of a thought of her own about anything. Pern wants women and girls who fail the sexy lamp test, with the exception of narratively-blessed dragonriders.]_

Robinton also meets a weyrbred man named Falloner, who I have a sneaking suspicion is going to have at least two sons with Manora and both of them will be instrumental in the return of the Weyrs to their glory. Falloner is assigned as Robinton's escort and tour guide, so we get to see Robinton realize Benden isn't as big as Fort, hear Falloner tell him about a staircase forbidden to everyone except the Holder family, observe and chat a little about who changes the glowbaskets, have Falloner preemptively dismiss Maizella's opinion about everything, and then check out the rather roomy digs he and Merelan have, right before everyone else arrives. His enthusiasm is met well by his mother and "Maizella raised her eyebrows contemptuously." Because it still isn't clear, apparently, that Maizella is not to be trusted or liked. Robinton and Merelan get a little alone time, where Merelan promptly bursts into tears and has the meltdown that she's been holding in until everything has been settled. Because it's very hard to leave your abuser, take your child, and essentially go somewhere strange and trust that the people you meet and know won't turn out to be worse, or predatory, or that they won't understand.

What Merelan needs right now is the assurance of her support system. Because the first few days that you're away from your abuser are emotionally difficult to deal with. Even though Merelan has done pretty well in having a job and a place to stay already lined up, it's still really, really hard.

Don't ask me how I know. It hasn't been long enough for me to want to tell you.

Robinton, of course, doesn't really understand all of this, and so he continues on with the conversations he's had with Spakinth. Merelan hugs him and says it's rare and that it might solve everything if he Impressed.

> "But I could still be a harper, couldn't I?" He hadn't had a definitive answer to that question from the dragons. Maybe his mother would know.  
>  "I think that depends on many things," she said, drying her eyes, and suddenly she seemed more like herself. "Like if there's a clutch when you're the right age. Dragons don't have as many eggs during an Interval, you see, and you're only impressionable until you're twenty, and the weyrbred have preference. At least, you'll get to understand more about the Weyrs, and that's all to the good."  
>  Again her remark was not meant for him, but he didn't mind because he'd like to know more about the Weyrs. The abandoned Fort Weyr was forbidden by order of Lord Grogellan. That might have been one reason why every boy had to go up there alone for a night when he turned twelve, or he'd be considered cowardly.

_[Cocowhat time. It's been too long.]_

Wait, what's with this "impressionable until you're twenty" routine? Ages are often rather vague in the chronology, and until now it's been mostly a question of "women eventually get too old to impress upon queens." When did it get specific, and how do they know?

Secondly, while I recognize the "spend the night in the haunted house" point from plenty of adventure stories, I'm more struck by yet another instance of this toxic idea - you spend the night or you're branded a coward. How does that even work? Why twelve? Is that the year when your education finishes and you're expected to take on a fuller role at your hold? _[It is, as we'll find out shortly.]_ Is it some sort of tradition? And why every boy? Surely there must be groups of friends that don't participate in this idea because they don't have a clue about it. But way to go, narrative, in telling us that anybody who is different gets mocked.

Before the scene changes, Robinton realizes his mother didn't bring any scores in Petiron's hand and asks if his dad is going to come visit. Merelan no comments to the point of saying "maybe for the big Gather," but that's all she says. Perceptive Robinton.

The next scene is the children's dinner table, where more than a few kids are vying for trying to make Robinton feel welcome, and while Robinton eats, and enjoys the food, he's also keeping an eye on Merelan.

> His mother sang, too, after the head table finished eating. And there were good voices joining in the chorus, so he wondered why Benden Hold would need a Mastersinger of his mother's standing. A good journeyman would have done as well. No, she was here to teach Maizella. Robinton wrinkled his nose: It was obvious from the loud way the girl was singing that she thought her voice was good. It wasn't bad, he had to admit, but she didn't need to shriek and she hadn't much breath control.

I'm choosing to read this in the way of the "child thinks they know more than they actually do," because even if Robinton is a musical prodigy, he's still nine and there are very few nine year-olds that I know of that could come to those conclusions and be right. Plus, he's also judging by Harper Hall standards, which are likely to be far more stringent than anywhere else.

Everyone else joins in the singing, and Robinton thinks the other kids at the table are trying to show off to him, but he's cool about it because

> Robinton was used to the way new-come apprentices to the Harper Hall acted, so he pretended not to notice.  
>  "It doesn't cost any marks to be gracious, no matter where you are or what you're doing," his mother was always saying. "No singer of a professional caliber would think of drowning out other singers" was another point she often made. Especially when she had been having all that trouble with Halanna. He hoped Maizella wouldn't be as difficult.

So this sounds like setting Robinton up to be aloof and superior, and actually coming across as condescending and better-than-you. Not that he necessarily gets it - still nine, but I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

_[Also, if all of the new apprentices to the Harper Hall tend to want to be showoffs and otherwise outdo each other, than Halanna shouldn't have been nearly the nightmare that she was. Perhaps she is more intense than others, but by now, one would think the instructors would be used to people coming in thinking they're going to show everyone up, only to realize that natural talent will only get you so far and doing the work is what gets you places, and have figured out how to handle that. Even if how they handle that is abhorrent.]_

The narrative then let's us know that Merelan's presence is good for everyone at Benden, because Merelan

> ... curbed the loudness of Maizella's rather good basic voice,  
>  [...which gets Merelan in good with not just kids, but adults...]  
>  Lord Maidir was a good man, and generally fair, but he adored his daughter, Maizella, who at sixteen hadn't the wisdom of common sense of her brother, Raid. Robie found him a bit stuffy and prim, but Raid had inherited his father's sense of fair play and would take criticism from any of the more senior members of the large group of people who managed the big Holding. Unlike his sister, he was popular. And there was a discreet understanding that Hayon, Rasa, and Naprila, the older of Lady Hayara's children, were to be protected from Maizella, who either teased them outrageously or ignored them as the fancy took her.  
>  Inured to such tactics as Robinton was, having survived Halanna's antics, he learned to smile and keep his tongue in his mouth.

Yes, we get your point, narrative. Women who are "doted on" by their fathers turn out to be unholy terrors that make things miserable for everyone around them.

However, this time around, rather than advocating for punishment and corporal abuse until the woman submits meekly, Merelan takes a reasonably effective tactic to show Maizella how to sing more properly: She stacks the deck against her by putting her in a duet with Robinton.

There's a little more about how Merelan would not stand for Robinton to show off for any longer than it took to "twist his ear to remind him to keep his place," and that Merelan's experience with Halanna had "taught Merelan a trick or two about overdeveloped conceits," but the narrative is misdirecting is by putting these in a musical context. Because the character not being mentioned at this point is Petiron, who is waiting in the wings for his opportunity to exercise patriarchy, but who also had to have Robinton hidden from him (and thus, "keeping his place" is a _survival mechanism_ ) and whom Merelan has been cleaning up after and running interference for all the time they were together (as you have all pointed out so wonderfully), so she probably knows a lot about "overdeveloped conceits" already, and not just from teaching Halanna. They have both been doing these things all their lives, just so that Petiron is placated.

Anyway, the way Merelan gets Maizella in line is by letting Robinton off-leash just enough to show how good a singer he actually is (which he enjoys immensely), and then cutting off Maizella when she tries to drown him out.

> "In duet singing, the voices must balance for the best effect. We know you can sing the crawlers out of their webs, Maizella, but there are none in this room." Merelan regarded those tittering with a stern eye. "From 'Now is the time'--and sing **with** the treble, not against him."

Which is a far more likely way of getting the lesson to stick, even if it does rely a little bit on embarrassing her in front of others, which doesn't set nearly as well as some other method could. It's still much better than the idea of hitting her until she sings quietly.

The next scene is the boys playing "goal ball", which has a goal like a Quidditch hoop, set on a pole, and a shooting line to fire from. Falloner suggests scaring the watch-wher, which elicits surprise from Robinton that someone weyrbred would do such a thing, and then, well, Falloner doesn't know that he's pushed Robinton's Berserker Button. He gets headbutted and Robinton is ready to pound him into the ground unless he promises not to scare the watch-wher anymore.

> "But it's not hurting them..."  
>  "If they scream, they hurt. Promise?"  
>  "Sure. Whatever you say, Rob."  
>  [...]  
>  "I just don't like to hear them scream," Robinton gave a convulsive shake. "Goes right through my ears and down to my heel-bones. Like chalk on a slate."

I like this Robinton a lot more than his adult self, because this one seems a lot less willing to inflict needless cruelty on others. He's still pretty full of himself, but someone could probably train that out of him.

Falloner promises, although he doesn't understand fully, and the narrative moves on to tell us about how Clisser's legacy actually has panned out. There's

> basic reading, writing, and figuring that all children were obliged to learn before their twelfth year. After that, they would take up apprenticeships to whatever Hall their inclination suited them, or go on in their family Hold's work. With a large Hold like Benden, there were enough pupils to be divided by age and ability.

As opposed to the backcountry, where it seems that even the basic songs are either neglected or campaigned against. But also, nobody seems to talk about whether or not taking up a Craft is a thing to be expected of children, children that are in excess of what you need to run your subsistence farming operation, only younger children of particular noble families, or what. Because the aristocracy of Terra might teach noble children various crafts, but it was not expected that they would pursue them as professionals (unless it were, say, the military or the priesthood.) There's always the possibility that the inheritance order or the marriage prospects gets messed up by having a kid turn into a dragonrider, and if the land grant idea still holds strong, there's always the possibility of someone starting their own Hold as their profession. It's never clear whether joining the Crafts is seen as a step down in status or not.

Also, compulsory education to the equivalent of sixth grade.

_[That's a cocowhat, because it's screaming time!]_

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. Most people don't know at twelve what they want to do with the rest of their life, and I'm guessing the apprenticeship process takes long enough that there's no real way of changing careers if you guessed wrong. Clisser, you're a terrible asshole.

In any case, Merelan lets Robinton teach the youngest younglings some of the scales and basics, because he's apparently quite good at making it understandable to them, while she tutors him herself and lets him continue to compose (he can't not do it). Merelan feeds those compositions out into the world by performing them and using them as songs to teach others with. Robinton would love recognition for all of that, but Merelan promises that it will come out at some point.

> "Harpering is not just knowing the words and melody to a lot of songs..."  
>  "And not just knowing when to sing them, either." He finished the saying for her.

Even now, the Harper Hall is engaging in the kind of "discretion" that lets them know and influence others.

As it turns out, we get to learn that Falloner is the son of the Benden Weyrleader before the time when he will have a son to do the same, and probably do the same himself. Falloner's pretty glib about how he's going to be a bronze rider, and how he's at Benden because the Weyr doesn't have a Harper and he needs to know all the things so that he can be a Weyrleader like his dad. Robinton is starstruck, tells his mother, and ends up with an assignment to rehearse the Question Song for that night.

Ah, and also a throwaway paragraph before that about how Maizella sings a lot better, even if most of her applause is from relief that it wasn't terrible rather than for her being good. Because even when women do well, they can't actually be good at something enough for the improvement to be worthwhile or noticeable. And the narrative doesn't bother pointing out that clearly, Merelan is an excellent teacher and was able to handle Maizella's issues much more easily and cleanly without Petiron's interference making things way worse.

Because women, apparently.

Dinner that night, with the Weyrleaders, starts dark.

> Falloner was not at the head table as Robinton thought he might be, since S'loner was his father. Carola was not his mother and, as Falloner took his usual place next to Robinton, he muttered something about her disliking S'loner's weyrlings.  
>  "Aren't weyrlings small dragons?"  
>  "Yes," Falloner said with a little snort. "Applied to us," he explained, sticking his thumb into his chest, "it's not a compliment. All she can get is girls. When she has anything."  
>  Robinton nodded and decided maybe more wasn't the time to ask more questions about the Weyr.

I have a few. Obviously, one of the casualties of medical knowledge is that sperm are generally responsible for the sex of a baby (assuming a sex and gender binary, which I'm sure Pern does, to their detriment), so blaming a woman for only daughters is misplaced at best. And also, childbirth is still incredibly painful and taxing. And dragonriders often warp through hyperspace before they know they're pregnant, so carrying to term is somewhat difficult. But what I really want to know is what S'loner and Carola's agreements are regarding ethical non-monogamy. Because if there are enough children to have a derogatory nickname, that's worth further examination. Is it a "I'll forgive you for anything you do while your bronze is chasing greens" idea? A more general permission for each of them to take lovers as they want to? Or (probably most likely) does S'loner just sleep with whomever he wants to, green dragon or no, because he's Weyrleader and a man?

The entertainment for the night has acrobats and a stage magician, before the Weyrleaders are feted with the Duty Song done with harmony and instruments, and

> Maizella stepped forward from her place in the chorus. Robinton heard the rustle: dismay or annoyance. They were in for a surprise, too, now that his mother had taken the girl in hand. Instead of planting herself in a defiant way, as if to indicate that she was going to sing and everyone had better listen to her, she came to the front in a quiet and professional manner and then looked to Merelan, who was accompanying her on the gitar.  
>  Robinton couldn't miss Weyrleader Carola's expression--total dismay--until Maizella started singing. Even S'loner regarded the girl with a pleased look and murmured something to Maidir, who nodded and smiled back.

And this is where I remind everyone that I am still entirely _done_ with the idea that girls and women become "good" in Pern when they stop being outspoken, advocating for themselves, and taking up the space they should have. Because the narrative still insists that every girl who isn't immediately deferential to all the men around them is spoiled or wrong. So while I do want to see Maizella get her voice trained, I _don't_ want to see her turn demure and have it looked on approvingly by the narrative as somehow her proper or natural state.

And then we get to Robinton singing the solo of the Question Song, the one we know Lessa commissioned in the past to make sure she would know to bring the Weyrs forward when the time came. Which makes S'loner very happy, Carola entirely not, and a provokes a small discussion about whether someone believes Thread will return. Falloner says the song made the Weyrleader quite happy. He also casually mentions that dragonriders routinely live past a century, which is great if you're the dragon and engineered to that...

A few days later and Merelan and Robinton are invited up to Benden Weyr to sing and dine. Merelan shows she knows more than she lets on by saying it will be good for Robinton to understand the Weyr for when he has to spend his confidence night in Fort. Robinton doesn't understand how she knows, because the "apprentices did not tell anyone, certainly not the girls" and I am still ready to spit flames at the sexism.

Robinton likes having his mother around and teaching more and life here more than at the Harper Hall, and when he asks Falloner whether he's also going to the Weyr, Falloner shrugs him off by pointing out that his birth mother died, likely in childbirth, and his foster mother died of fever, and so there's nobody there that Falloner is interested in seeing. There's also a Noodle Incident that _resulted_ in Falloner getting sent down in the first place, but Robinton exercises discretion and doesn't pressure Falloner. Or C'vrel, who is the transport dragonrider.

Lady Hayara makes sure Falloner accompanies, so that Robinton can learn what he needs to know about Weyrs so that he can be an excellent Harper. And so the chapter ends with Robinton observing the Weyr from above.

Next chapter picks right up where we leave off here.


	7. Convenient Absence

Last chapter, Robinton and Merelan went to Benden Hold to escape Petiron's abuse. Robinton made a plot-important friend in Falloner and his performance of the Question Song has netted him an invitation to Benden Weyr, which is where we pick up.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter VII: Content Notes: Abuser Tactics**

Falloner slips off the wrong side of Falarth, the transport dragon, so as to not have to be officially acknowledged, and introductions are made of the headwoman of the Lower Caverns, the Weyrsinger, C'gan, who is a blue rider, and Miata, who handles lessons at the Weyr.

I can't remember if there have always been Harpers at Weyrs or not, but the distinction of C'gan being a singer is apparently an important one, because not five paragraphs later, Robinton is (again) wondering whether or not he can be both Harper and dragonrider, despite theoretically having met someone who is both of those roles in C'gan. (I'm also not thrilled that the person interested in singing is described as slight and boyish and, according to draconic typing, very much gay, because it sounds like the stereotype of camp gay.) Robinton's wonderings stop at Impressing a bronze or a brown, and don't go any further.

Falloner gives Robinton the tour, including the crevice where everyone spies on the eggs in the Hatching Ground and some of the spaces he probably shouldn't be in, like the Archives. There's also a wink and a nod to how Robinton is going to be both old and a workaholic:

> As they flashed by, Rob caught a glimpse of his mother talking to some of the old aunties and uncles at one of the tables. Well, that duty would be over, so he wouldn't have to nod and smile at the oldsters. The look of them, not to mention sometimes their smell, distressed him. People shouldn't get **that** old. When harpers could no longer work, they went back to their birthplaces or down to the warmer, southern holds.

I'm going to note that the narrative is pinging about with various nicknames for Robinton, which seems like something characters would do. The narrative, I would expect, would stick with a single name _[, probably whichever one it is that Robtinton picks for himself. The changing nicknames, though, do have the benefit of telling us that time has passed and Robinton is older than he was with the other nickname.]_

Also, not cool about the older people, Robinton. They're boring to you now, but many of them hold the memories you're going to need.

Finally, it seems very weird to me that Pern, which is generally a very whitebread cultural approximation of Latin Christendom, has this universal thing of "everyone is everyone's auntie and uncle." Which isn't to say there weren't extended families and more than a few kinship bonds between families in the same space, but it seems very out of place that it has extended to the point where even people who aren't in the same space you are get the respectful titles due to an elder. (Even if they do smell.) Given how things are set up in the planet, it doesn't seem like it would have developed the cultural idea of everyone older than you being an aunt or an uncle. But maybe I'm the one being weird. _[Since ties and inter-generational work is the norm on Pern, rather than the idea of your own immediate family and working solely with a cohort of your peers, it's entirely possible respectful addresses for all ages of people, whether they're your senior or junior, might have redeveloped over time.]_

The tour continues until the dinner bell rings, and Robinton gets to sit with Falloner. There's more reference to Noodle Incidents as everyone who's a grownup tells Falloner to behave, and we see a young Manora, currently given charge over Larna, whom Falloner declares needs to be taught manners, even if all that happens is the teachers get in trouble. Robinton can sense that the grouping around Falloner often have issues with each other, and diverts the topic where he can back onto safer ground. Before food, and then singing, where the important part is that there's a dragon that tells Robinton that the dragons listen to the music as well, and that S'loner gives Robinton a wink when he says as much aloud at the end of the night. Then it's back to Benden Hold the next morning.

Where there is a package waiting for them from the Harper Hall - Petiron has written something new and Gennell has sent it along. Merelan plays it, of course.

> "I think I can say," she began slowly, "without fear of contradiction"--a little smile turned up the corners of her mouth--"that this is the most expressive music your father has ever written." She wrapped both arms around her gitar. "I think he misses us, Robie."  
>  He nodded. The music had definitely been more melancholic, where his father usually wrote more...more positive, aggressive music, full of embellishments and variations, with wild cadenzas and other such flourishes. Rarely as simple, and elegant, a melody as this. And it was melodic.  
>  She picked up Master Gennell's note. "Master Gennell thinks so, too. 'Thought you ought to see this, Merelan. A definite trend toward the lyric. And, in my opinion, quite likely the best thing he's ever written, though he'd be the last to admit **that**.'" Merelan gave a little laugh. "He'll never admit it, but I think you're right, Master Gennell."

Don't take him back, Merelan. Also, Gennell, you're being an asshole, although there's a fifty-fifty on whether you realize it. Because if Merelan wouldn't have wanted to see this from Petiron himself, then you're helping Petiron by sending it under your own seal. It can be the sweetest love song in the universe, and it's still a thing that Merelan might not actually want to hear or see, because Petiron is still an asshole, even if not having her there is changing his compositions and inspiring new ideas. There are lots of assholes who use their breakups and relationships as song fodder. (There are good artists that do the same.)

It's just that this seems a lot more like a dude playing a piano in the front lawn of his girlfriend's house and vowing not to quit until she takes him back. It sounds romantic, if you don't play attention to the details.

_[And with the voice of more experience, there are a lot of people who are estranged from their loves or their children who won't respect someone's wishes to have as little or no contact with them as possible. One of their tactics is to ask the people who know their child or lover to relay messages or to give them updates about life, in the hopes that they will pass along the information and the desire to reopen communication, or that the mutual acquaintance will give them information about how to find or contact or stalk the person they've been cut off from. Children and custody requirements are certainly one of those things that can keep an abuser tied to the family, or continuing to try and get information about them. Sometimes, getting away from abusers means having to cut ties with friends and others who you would otherwise want to keep in contact with, because they're not going to side with you or they're not good enough to maintain OPSEC about you. Which, again, makes things even more difficult than they otherwise would be just to get away.]_

Chapter VIII is a big chapter, so we'll leave off here. But just peeking in, I can see that there's talk of going back to the Harper Hall.


	8. Everything Is Terrible

Last chapter was basically going to the Weyr and seeing what there was to see, having Falloner give Robinton the tour, and otherwise taking an interlude.

Problem is, Merelan is planning on going back to the Harper Hall. Where Petiron is. Who Gennell sent a composition from in an attempt to get her back.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter VIII: Content Notes: Child Abuse, Bullying, Hazing, Neglect, Demeaning Women to Raise Men**

As much as I would like to believe this missive from Gennell is a plea that Petiron is entirely out of control and will she please come back and help him, if that were the case, it would make things be terrible if she came back for him. But it would be _awesome_ if it were the case and Merelan said no.

For now, however, Merelan just writes that she has to serve out her contact at Benden Hold, so that she can train the Weyrsinger more and so that she can have pull enough to get a good journey-level Harper to Benden.

She also wants to take Maizella back to the Hall with her, thinking that it will be good for her. And that she might have a singing partner in Halanna. Which sounds like a rather interesting way of doing things. Unless Halanna is supposed to be the older woman to scare Maizella with "I used to be you, until they beat me, starved me, and refused to let me go until I became the woman I am now. And I'm MUCH HAPPIER NOW THAN I WAS BEFORE. (Quickly! Run while you can!) But otherwise, I can't see a reason to put two headstrong people together like that.

> Maizella's parents were delighted to think that the Mastersinger even suggested the idea for their daughter. That was after Lady Hayara gave birth to a son.  
>  "I'd have preferred another girl," she admitted to Merelan when she and Robie dutifully visited her. "It's so much easier to just marry them off suitably than have to worry about all the rivalry among boys to succeed. I mean, I know that Raid will make a good Lord Holder, but..."  
>  Falloner had spent one evening explaining to Robinton why it was better to be in Weyr or Hall because, if you were a male in a line for succession in a Hold, you had to guard yourself against jealous brothers and cousins.  
>  "But don't the Lord Holders all get together in one of their councils and decide?" Robinton asked and got a snort for his ingenuousness.  
>  "Sure, they decide, but it's usually the strongest one they pick, the one who's survived long enough to present himself as a candidate...."

The casualness that Hayara has about marrying daughters off makes me upset on behalf of all the daughters married off into politics or other alliances without any thought of whether they want to be part of it.

Also, primogeniture is a terrible system when you have more than one son and a limited amount of land. And there seems to be a very causal attitude toward the idea of brothers killing or hurting each other to make sure they're the only one that can be named as successor. Which would make Pern more terrible than the actual Terran period it modeled itself on, as Terra tends to stash younger sons into the priesthood (here, the dragonriders choose that themselves) or the military (and there's no real inter-Hold warfare going on, so there's no options there).

_[Furthermore, this jockeying-among-successors bit is basically at complete odds with the way that Pern has been operating so far. None of the Hold families that I have seen, as best as I can remember, have any sort of internal politics war going on about who is the right person to Hold and who isn't, and which son should be confirmed or which ones have proven themselves. There are the occasional bits where the Conclave of Lords can't decide who should succeed, but there doesn't seem to be any need for any sons to have to watch out for being poisoned, or left to die, or any other sort of thing that would indicate actual struggles for power going on. The oldest son is going to get it, unless there's some reason to believe they're not actually fit or competent for it. And everyone seems to accept this, rather than try to scheme to make themselves the right person for the job to inherit the family lands. It's like there's an unwritten rule that the blue bloods don't kill each other, even though they have a culture that encourages dueling as a way of settling disputes.]_

Pern is such a terrible place to live. Unless, perhaps, you get lucky enough to be part of the 1%. (The parallels to our Terra are prescient. And also terrible.)

The narrative essentially continues on to the point where Robinton and his mother go back to the Hall, with Maizella coming to study for a year with them. (Didn't know it was a limited time contract. I'd always assumed that the women were there until they were sent back or they completed their course of study.) There's also an idiom here that I don't have a good reason to believe survived, "stepping on no one's toes," but the linguistics of Pern have long since been absolutely beyond logic or consistency.

When they get back, with Spakinth showing off by appearing much closer to the Harper Hall than C'rob would have ever wanted (Merelan pleads mercy), _there's a fucking welcome back chorus for them_

> Grinning, she waved at those gathered on the steps. Then she began to clap again as a chorus from the second story assembly sang a loud musical welcome.
> 
> **We're glad you're home  
>  We're glad you've come  
>  We welcome you  
>  With Heart and voice  
>  And hope you'll never leave.**

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

_[That's a Cocowhat's worth of screaming!]_

**_[Run away, run away, run away!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8coWRK_6aes)_** Especially since someone (although Petiron is not immediately visible) has arranged for this rather creepy song to be song, as well as all these other people, Masters and other familiar people, to be there waving to her. (Including Silvina, who we know will be Robinton's headwoman when he's in charge of the Hall.) Merelan is apparently delighted by all of this, enough to ignore the part in the lyric that says they don't want her to leave again. She does have enough presence of mind to tell Robinton not to mention the melody Petiron wrote, unless Petiron mentions it first. Because Petiron did not send that melody to her, Gennell did.

As it turns out, Petiron is not there, because he was out helping another Hold have a Gather. He was certain that he would be back in time, so nobody sent word to delay Merelan until he could be present for her.

Merelan asks if Halanna went. She did. The others ask about Maizella, and Merelan describes her thus:

> "She's a well-behaved young lady," Merelan said, chuckling as Master Gennell's obvious apprehension eased. "I'd scarcely inflict the Hall with another..." She cleared her throat and suggested that Robie might like to finish his drink with his friends.

Charming. Although that can be read as either "ha, ha, like I'd do that again" or "zOMG, you think I would intentionally inflict that on all of you again?" I can be charitable for Merelan in this one.

It takes Petiron a few days to get back, and there's an actively hurt horse with them. But there's been a change in Merelan, one big enough that Robinton notices.

> He couldn't understand his mother's reaction. She'd worried about Petiron not being there, and now she didn't seem to care that he was safely home.

I can guess. Merelan is probably pissed off at Petiron. At minimum, pissed at him for not being there for Robinton (and herself?) when they returned from the Hold and being unpleasantly reminded of all the reasons why she left in the first place. I suspect that inquiring about Halanna suggests that Merelan may also suspect that Petiron took Halanna for romantic or sexual reasons as well. Either of these reasons by themselves would be enough to cause an "out of cope" error, but together, they're probably causing a full on "nope, can't be bothered to expend energy or care on this" situation.

That Petiron doesn't immediately come to see his family once he gets back doesn't help. And while we're not treated to the entirety of the angry shouting match that ensues, due to Robinton, our viewpoint character, shutting a reasonably soundproof door and then reinforcing that idea with a pillow wrapped around his head, we do get a little of his internal monologue, and it is entirely the monologue of an abuse victim trying to figure out the way to please his adviser.

> Even Lord Maidir was nicer to him than his father was. Why couldn't he please his own father? What had he done wrong? Why couldn't he do something right? He probably oughtn't to have said that he could take Londik's place. But he could. He knew he could. His mother had said that his voice was every bit as good as Londik's, and he was the better musician. And she didn't **just** say things like that to make you feel good--not about professional matters.

This is the part where I get sad that the cycle of abuse is really hard to break. And we've already seen plenty of Robinton being abusive and cruel in his adult years. Still not a matter of excusing Petiron. Just that it's going to be so hard for Robinton, because he's going to grow up in the worst parts of an abusive parent and a school that will drive him to his limits.

The narrative picks up again with a bone of contention between the parents - Petiron insists that Robinton audition for the role that Londik is leaving behind, because that is the procedure and Petiron doesn't want to be accused of favoritism. Merelan points out, quite rightly, that Robinton has been working with all the masters who will be auditioning him and that they could all honestly pass him through without the audition, because they already know his capabilities.

He has to audition in front of his dad and mom for this, which should be a serious conflict of interest. Even if they are the highest-ranking people there in their disciplines, they should be recused from this so as to not have any thought of impropriety or nepotism.

Robinton nails the audition, including sight-singing a composition of his father's after one pass at it with his eidetic memory. He can do the trills, the runs, the complex tempo shifts, and the interval leaps that will grate on the audience's ears. (Which, if I haven't mentioned this enough by now, sounds like terrible music composition, the kind of thing someone creates to display their own ego and skill, and not to make music that will be remembered or re-sung.)

Everyone applauds and seems convinced that this is satisfactory. Petiron is stunned that his child of ten could do what just happened, but rather than congratulate his son or offer any sort of praise, Petiron says that Robinton needs to be more careful with his dynamics when he's sight-singing. This threatens to set Merelan off. Gennell intervenes with Petiron before that can happen, telling Petiron he's wrong on the matter of dynamics, and then shutting him down on the idea of teaching his son, because Petiron teaches journeymen, and his son is not old enough to even be an apprentice. So Robinton will continue to get special lessons from his mother, as well as his regular classes for children of his age. (Gennell gives Robinton a wink after this, one that Petiron doesn't see.) Gennell then heads off with Petiron, telling him about how Igen wants a repeat of a program done last year, and how it would be a good spot to debut Robinton.

Then one of the other masters comments on how Gennell doesn't miss much, even if he doesn't always seem to be paying attention, and the moment we could have had about how everyone has to keep cleaning up after Petiron's incitements and won't someone please teach him how to social in ways he can understand is gone. Because Petiron was just an asshole to his son, his wife was about to tell him off about it, and someone else just had to intervene to make sure things didn't explode messily in front of the son who just did something spectacular and rightly should be praised for it.

Robinton, for his part, resolves to memorize the piece that was mentioned by Gennell from last year's show so "that way, he wouldn't annoy his father."

Fast forward until Robinton is twelve, accepted as a Harper apprentice, and getting ready to go live in the dormitories with the other apprentices.

> If Robinton did not realize until he was full-grown how deftly the Harper Hall conspired to save him from his father's perfectionism, he was consumed with relief when "protocol" required him to join the other apprentices in their dormitory the day after his twelfth birthday. Instead of being on better terms with his father after two Turns of solo work, he seemed to annoy Petiron even more, no matter how hard he tried. In fact, it got so everyone noticed, and the other singers made a point of telling him how well he did, loud enough for his father--who gave him only a nod now and then--to hear.  
>  He knew his transfer upset his mother, and yet he was positive it would make things a lot easier for her. It was only too obvious that his father couldn't wait to see the back of him. And in his case wasn't the same as that of the other apprentice lads: he'd lived in the Hall all his life, so he wouldn't be homesick in the dormitory. Although he would miss his mother's loving care, he was earnestly looking forward to leaving the family apartment.

Not wrong. Things probably will improve in the household without him there, since he's been a point of contention between both parents since his birth. His mother won't have to be constantly on guard against his father. Things will be filtered through to Petiron appropriately so that he doesn't crush his son with negligence and abuse.

But it appears there's been a tiny lapse, right at the end, as Petiron asks to see some amount of music that he sees Merelan putting into Robinton's bag, and is able to follow the chain all to the point where Petiron realizes that Robinton has composed all the things that are being used by the masters and clamored for by the apprentices. And wonders just how much has been hidden from him.

> "You hid from me the fact that he has perfect pitch, has a good treble voice, and has been writing music?"  
>  "No--one--has--been--hiding--a sharding thing from you, Petiron," Merelan said tensely, enunciating every syllable and using a swear word that shocked Robinton as much as it did her spouse, who recoiled from her controlled anger. "You--simply--did not hear, and did not see. Now, act the father for once in your life, and carry this carton to the dormitory. It's much too heavy for Rob."  
>  [...Petiron leaves, and Merelan offers a final apology...]  
>  "Wait a minute, dear." She turned back to him, her face drawn with sadness and despair. "I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have lost my patience with the man. But I can't keep on saving his self-esteem, catering to his enormous ego, and always at your expense, Rob."

And then Robinton goes to live with the apprentices.

This apology is genuine and heartfelt, and very much too little, too late. Because Merelan has been doing just that, even though she's also been giving Petiron the business about his parenting, and she did leave Petiron for a bit. But it's hard leaving someone you love, even when you have the evidence of their abuse in front of you. It's even harder to do if you don't have really good support, _demonstrated_ good support, a plan, friends, and a way to get back on your feet. And then even harder if it's a place like Pern, where an unattached woman with a child could easily be denounced, smeared, or otherwise stripped of her way of making a living on the say-so of her abuser.

It's really fucking hard to get away from someone. Believe someone when they express doubts and show your support for them. If you can, indicate to them what you can help them with if they are making sounds like they need to leave. And then, follow through on it if they go. Because desperation will kick in, or they'll decide it's the right time to do it, and they're going to need that help.

Robinton gets settled in before the obligatory hazing begins.

> He kept a suitable expression on his face when the head apprentice, a tall well-built lead from Keroon named Shonagar, rattled off what was expected of first-year apprentices, how they were the "lowest" of the "lowly" in the Hall, and the traditions of their new status. He also told them about the necessity of spending a night alone in the Weyr to prove their bravery.  
>  "Harpers run into all kinds of problems and difficulties. This isn't just singing songs to folks in a hold in the evenings. It can be a dangerous life," he said, thoroughly solemn, "and you have to prove, now, that you can take it."  
>  [...Shonagar says there will be no exceptions...]  
>  Robinton had rehearsed with Shonagar many times--Shonagar was a good second tenor. More important, he was fair-minded and really did keep good order in the apprentice dormitories. Though his position as head apprentice was not an official rank, Master Gennell encouraged his leadership. Shonagar would allow no bullying or improper behavior in the dorms.

_[That's a cocowhat's worth of laughter.]_

Cocowhat by depizan

Shonagar, the one who beats Piemur when he's a master and doesn't actually do anything to stop bullying going on among the apprentices, even when confronted with the evidence that it is going on? That one apparently doesn't tolerate bullying or improper behavior. And also, the narrative is telling us this right after Shonagar starts hazing the new apprentices and tells them about the initiation they have to pass. Which is an open secret, sure, but that's the definition of improper behavior and bullying. That this is written in a time where collegiate fraternity life has hazing as a tradition and stereotype, and that can go to pretty terrible extremes, but even so, it's not an excuse for the essential wrongness of the action.

Robinton ends up volunteering for the first night in the Weyr when everyone else doesn't go, and while it's dark and cold, Robinton has studied the plans of the place (and told others to do the same). So he goes exploring, finds a warmer spot and has a seat before going too far into the darkness. And mentally thanks Falloner for showing him around Benden Weyr, so that he's not totally lost and scared. So he goes to sleep and gets woken by the others looking for him. Shonagar threatens him with violence to not say anything to the other apprentices.

Still want to tell me that Shonagar doesn't tolerate bullying in the Hall? Because this is much more like the Shonagar we met from Piemur's perspective.

The last thing I need in this tale of spousal and child abuse is a narrative trying to gaslight me about bullying. Especially since the previous books set in the Hall were also about child abuse and bullying that was normalized and accepted. The narrative expects us not to remember what it has already done. (Which, admittedly, might be easier when you have a few decades in between these novels, rather than a once-a-week airing of grievances.)

Robinton intends to follow the letter of Shonagar's threat and not talk to any of them about his night, but he will show the other apprentices that he's slipped matches and tinder into their pockets before they leave.

Robinton becomes a favorite among the apprentices for advice and comfort, as well as a tutor for the slower students. But he still can't get anything from Petiron about doing well.

> Halanna and Maizella were also soloists, but though Petiron remarked favorably on their performances, he had not so much as a nod for his son. The apprentices, being as astute as they were, did not fail to notice this. But if any complained, he'd shrug and remark that his father expected him to be note-perfect.

Petiron...

Robinton learns drum code, which is how he learns of the laying of a clutch, and hopes that dragonriders come to Search him, but nobody comes, the dragons hatch, Falloner, who becomes F'lon, gets his bronze, as does a weaver, Lytonal, who becomes L'tol, (and then Lytol), and his idea of being both dragonrider and Harper fades out. So he throws himself into his life at the Hall, and it suits him, and his mother smiles more, and things seem better for a while.

And then his voice cracks a little past thirteen, and there's no saving his treble self from puberty. His mother takes it in good grace, jokes that his father is going to accuse him of doing it on purpose to screw up the performance for the Equinox, and then make sure that the replacement is up to standard in time. Merelan says this with a chuckle, but I don't think it's actually a joke. That's probably what Petiron will do, in all seriousness.

Robinton has an important question for his mother -- what will he do when he's in journeyman composition and has to do assignments for his father? His mother dodges the question, and time passes, where his father sends him to the back of the chorus and his mother instructs him in how to use his new baritone voice. And is willing to be a bit more critical of Petiron around him.

> "[...] Don't you dare belittle what you do so very well. Far better than he ever could. The only real music he ever wrote--" She stopped, pursing her lips in irritation.  
>  "Was the music he wrote while we were in Benden." Robinton finished the sentence for her. "And you're right. Speaking quite objectively as a harper, my father's compositions are technically perfect and demanding, brilliant for instrumentalists and vocal dexterity, but scarcely for the average holder or craftsman."

So things are back to being more harmonious because Robinton doesn't have to hide and Merelan doesn't have to hide him, and Robinton progresses because his father never gets the opportunity to determine what is his and apply his impossible standard to it unless it's something Robinton has to be physically present for.

And F'lon comes to visit, long after Robinton heard about his Impression. The dragon attracts attention, and the two are as old friends, even in front of the hall where everyone is. F'lon confirms that S'loner decided not to Search and thinks that Robinton would have made a good rider. Also of note is that dragons' mental voices tend to sound like their riders' audible ones. There is hospitality, and Robinton tries to ignore Petiron's scowl at him and not to remember all the stories of fathers doing things with sons that the other apprentices had told.

Also, his mother is ailing and this causes Robinton no small amount of distress. And Maizella mentions that Merelan fainted after a performance, and the healers want her to take a sabbatical somewhere warm. Robinton doesn't get the chance to convince her, though, because Merelan collapses after singing another of Petiron's compositions at the Equinox ceremony. That gets Petiron on board that his wife needs rest. Robinton, of course, is ready to blame himself for all of this, because when you're continually being neglected, or abused, you tend to try and focus on the things that you think you can control, like yourself...

> "You mean, after giving birth to a big lug like me?" Robinton demanded. He had overheard his father complaining that having a child had seriously damaged her.  
>  "You weren't all that big at birth, for all of you now," Lorra said in her droll fashion, "so don't cover yourself in midden dung in guilty reparation. **You** have never been at fault." She cleared her throat, realizing that her emphasis implied she knew who was. "Merelan's always lived on nerve. It's the energy she uses to sing and perform at the level she does that drains her so. But there comes a time in a woman's life when she isn't as resilient as she was in her twenties."

...even when it's entirely the truth that this is a situation out of your control, or that someone else can do a lot more to make better than you can. Still traumatized, Robinton is. And significantly so at the prospect of losing his mother.

What's not helping is that when Merelan returns, Petiron focuses on her and excludes his son, to the point where he even doesn't casually insult the baritones, who Robinton unofficially leads and whose section members are trying to do their very best as a way of shielding Robinton from Petiron.

Gennell eventually calls in Robinton near the end of the term before he's supposed to go into composition and tells him that he's passing him out of composition. Everyone knows that Robinton knows the material, and they're not going to subject him to his father as a teacher, but that leaves a term-long hole in his schedule that has to be filled. Robinton suggests being an itinerant teacher for that term, and Gennell denies him while hinting that there's a really good story that we're not getting because we're doing Robinton: The Early Years.

> "Not that all those unassigned holdings would accept a harper if I had one to send them," Gennell said drolly. And when Robinton looked apprehensive, he added with a sigh, "There are some holds that profess not to require the services we provide."  
>  "I find that hard to believe," Robinton said, appalled. Not want to learn how to read, write, and reckon? How could people get along in life without such basic skills?

I do not find this hard to believe at all, and I really want to see what goes on in these remote, Harper-less holds. We had a peek in Chapter I that many of those places hold the idea that Harpers are evil people who steal away children from the community. Those same communities are probably like many of the land-tied peasants whose entire lives would be performed mostly without the need to read or write or do maths, and most likely, they aren't concerned with the cult of the dragonriders past the point that riders exist and will protect them.

They don't need Harpers. But I want to spend time _there_ and figure out the whys and how life on the fringes work.

Gennell does note that Robinton likes teaching, and promises to set him to a Harper that needs an assistant to help teach, if Robinton promises in return to keep writing catchy tunes and ballads. You know, like that girl we met much earlier in the series who also had the uncanny knack for catchy tunes and endless composition and who was frowned upon by her father for doing so.

Robinton is very happy at the prospect of being able to get out and stretch his wings and not have to deal with Petiron's constant disapproval and the tension that was always there between Petiron and Merelan. Robinton also is happy to have been clued in on the possibility that the journeyman promotions might be happening soon. Soon turns out to be that very night, and twelve apprentices are promoted up, eleven from their final years as apprentices, and one from the third years - Robinton himself. As Gennell puts it:

> "However, when the fundamentals of our craft have been well and truly learned, I insist that we hold no one back from the rank they are entitled to by knowledge and ability, and in this case, rare talent."

Oh, no.

Oh, _hell_ no.

If that sounds familiar, it should. Let me pull up the relevant quote from Dragonsinger.

> "However, when the fundamentals of our craft have been well and truly learned, I insist that we hold no one back from the rank they are entitled to by knowledge and ability, and in this case, rare talent."

And in both cases, wild applause happens, including from the masters.

_[That's a cocowhat for audacity.]_

_[And also, the fuck everything cat, because...]_

__

__

The narrative has just pulled off its greatest theft yet - it has stolen Menolly's story away from her and given it to Robinton. Instead of being a pioneer in the Harper Hall who walks the tables early and is their first girl journey-rank ever, Menolly is slotted in as the girl Robinton, only replicating his feats at the Hall and being the second ultra-talented composer of earworms and catchy tunes. Menolly's accomplishments have been cut out from underneath her and made lesser, and with the retconning in of other women at the Hall, she no longer has a place of pride or uniqueness for anything she's done. Menolly's story, coming from a Sea Hold and persevering through adversity, has been appropriated for a dude who has had the benefit of being at the Hall all his life. Menolly deserves better than this.

The last useful thing is that we are told Petiron slipped out at some point during the celebration, and Merelan stayed, and Robinton thinks this is as it should be. Because this is how it has been for his entire life. And that's Chapter VIII.


	9. On Assignment

Last time, the narrative thought Menolly's story looked much better on Robinton and gave it to him, Petiron continued to be an asshole, and the massive Harper Hall conspiracy to keep Robinton's contact with Petiron to a minimum continued all the way through Robinton's promotion to journeyman and subsequent assignment to High Reaches Hold.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter IX: Content Notes: Dealing with trauma**

Chapter IX begins with Merelan suggesting that Robinton ask F'lon to take him to his assignment in High Reaches. Robinton thinks it would be seen as showing off, Merelan thinks it would be good for his reputation.

There's another change at this point:

> He hadn't so much as laid eyes on his father since the night before, but that didn't surprise him. He was now separated from his father, both as parent and teacher. His relief was intense, his concern for his mother immense. She seemed so frail, and her hands trembled a bit as she wrapped his pipes and put them in one of the packs.

We also find out that Gennell deliberately promoted Robinton while Petiron was out of the hall, which makes Robinton cringe and worry even more for his mother, who believes that Petiron will get pissed, and then go back to composing.

The arrival of a dragon indicates that F'lon has been asked to take Robinton to High Reaches anyway. Three Masters appear to get his baggage and put it on the dragon. And then Robinton is off, and Master Lobirn is unimpressed with him. And very unimpressed with the compositions of Petiron. And also uses Robinton's compositions quite a bit, although he doesn't know that they're Robinton's. Robinton's patient demeanor helps him win over Lobirn, even as he gets the slow, the young, and the duty of going out to the far-flung holds and talking to them, as well as leaving them music to use when he's not there. It keeps him busy, but it also means that Robinton occasionally gets close to hurting himself when he's distracted trying to compose and isn't paying attention to the road. But at least he can sing and play loudly without any fear.

It's different than the Hall, and because this book is a parade of names, Robinton meets a young Holder at High Reaches named Fax, and Fax is, being a villain, already exactly the way he will be when Lessa meets him much later.

> Even on his first encounter with the young holder--a question of who took the steps first at a landing where several halls met, Robinton felt uneasy in the man's presence. Fax was aggressive, impatient, and condescending. A nephew of Lord Faroguy, he had recently taken Hold of one of the Valley properties, which he ran with a heavy hand, demanding perfection of all beholden to him. Some craftsmen had asked for transfers to other holdings.  
>  Robinton heard unsettling rumors about Fax's methods, but it wasn't for a harper to criticize--or to take precedence over a holder, so he had courteously allowed Fax to go first. All he got for his deference was a sneer, and he noted that Fax, who had been striding with urgency to get somewhere, now slowed his pace deliberately. What that proved escaped Robinton completely, but it did give some of the rumors more credibility than he had originally thought.  
>  One evening Fax went out of his way to get Robinton on the wrestling mats: not with himself but with one of his younger holders.

This is one of those things where it would be good to know how inheritance works. Because if there's a way to do things on a trial basis, or if someone is merely regent rather than lord, it should be no trouble at all to yank Fax out of his position or give him a severe dressing-down for the way that he's handling things. Or approve transfer requests of anyone who wants to leave and note the reasons why. Or exercise some other sort of check on him to remind him that even those who have absolute power in their own domain still have to interact with others. Like having Craftmasters pull their people out in protest over treatment. Fax is already being a bully and is likely not being a profitable holder. But this is probably more of the same bullshit that stopped Chalkin from being tossed out for his actions, because the sovereignty of the lord is so sacred that even human rights abuses can't move the Lords to action.

And then the narrative chooses to tell us exactly why Fax stays in power, after the Harpers all unofficially agree to take some self-defense lessons.

> In any event, Fax did not request a harper for his holding. That was his decision and his folk would be stinted by the lack, but only Lord Faroguy could require his holders to provide education. Since Fax's holding appeared to be so much more profitable under his management, Lord Faroguy had little reason to question his methods. Somehow Fax managed to keep from his uncle the fact that his profits were obtained by whippings and threats of eviction.

_[Plus one cocowhat.]_

_[And the fuck everything cat.]_

IN WHAT UNIVERSE IS THIS PROFITABLE. (Outside the extremely short term.) Fax is terrible at this ruling thing, and his mistakes start with the decision to keep the Harpers out. Who is responsible for telling all the peasants that their lot in life is to serve their lord unquestioningly? Harpers. Who then gives the peasants the hope that they might be raised from this drudgery through the intervention of dragonriders, even if it's got less odds than winning the lottery here? Harpers. And who are the people that will best testify on your behalf of someone accuses you if doing something you don't want to admit to? _Harpers_. They're your best friend if you want to stay in power. Fax should be sweet-talking them, rather than being a dick toward them. What I wouldn't give for a villain that understands politics.

I can't see this kid turning into the Fax we had at the beginning of the series without seriously figuring out how to get his act together. (Then again, that Fax expelled all the Harpers from his conquests, instead of trying to corrupt them to his side or, as is being presented here, never having asked for them in the first place. Yet another retcon at work.)

_[The Fax that we had at the beginning of the series was his own form of Stupid Evil, given how he treated his people, how he courted disaster by insulting dragonriders, and how he generally seemed more interested in conquering than in holding and consolidating, but this particular one seems like the kind that would have to cut a bloody swath in his wake because he's too stupid to stay out of duels and to understand that you can't bleed a Hold dry like he is and expect to get long-term gains out of it. Of course, there's always the possibility that Fax will get bailed out by Faroguy if he runs the place into the ground, putting Fax in a position where he gets all the profits to himself and shifts the risk onto someone else. Vulture capitalists, of course, should be yote into the sun wherever possible. On Pern, to the Red Star with them.]_

The narrative sends Robinton up to the drum heights, where, lacking better things to do, he composes a song for the miners and slips it into the rotation. It does extremely well, but it also tips his hand to Lobirn, who figures out in short order that Robinton composed all of the music that he's been using and most of the stuff coming out of the Hall. Lobirn is nonplussed at this discovery, but getting the truth out of Robinton about when most things he uses were composed seems him into a howling fit of laughter. Once Lobirn calms down, he explains the revelation and the reason why it's so damn funny

> "The joke's on Petiron! That conceited, condescending, consummate composer hasn't half the talent of his own son!"

Which is only true if your desired end result is catchy tunes and songs that are easy to teach and remember to others. That's very much a Harper goal, and so in that regard, Robinton is miles better than Petiron. But that shows a lot of the subjectivity that's involved in determining talent. Fax, I suspect, wouldn't think Robinton is any better than his dad, because Fax believes in main strength and cruelty. _[And someone who likes Petiron's music for its complexity may be utterly impressed with Robinton's simple melodies and catchy tunes. After all, there are some people who believe that art has to be difficult to be properly art, and anyone who does something the plebes can understand is selling out.]_

Anyway, the narrative gives us yet another sign that Robinton is still struggling with the abuse from his dad.

> However, this respect generated an unexpected side effect: it made him realize all the more keenly the relationship that Petiron had been unable to give him. In order to abate his bitterness, Robinton began mentally to refer to his father as Petiron, rather than "father." Maybe one day he could forgive the slights and the terrible hurt Petiron had inflicted on him--but not yet. Meanwhile, in his growing pleasure in Lobirn's continued good favor, painful memories of striving for an acceptance that had never come began to fade.

That kind of dissociation is to be expected from the trauma that's been inflicted, and if, say, there were counselors on Pern, they might be able to help him get through the trauma, instead of leaving him to work it through himself, and to figure out how not to be re-traumatized every time Petiron is around. It's good that he's building healthy professional relationships with others and that they are telling him that he's doing well, and hopefully he can manage to continue doing just that.

We also get to see more of Chalkin's legacy.

> "Fax does not wish his holders to be educated, Rob," Malian said, crossing his hands behind his head and tipping his chair back. "Simple as that. What they don't know won't hurt them--because they also won't learn their rights."  
>  [...Robinton is agog at this...]  
>  "But he's denying them their rights under the Charter!"  
>  "He denies there **is** a Charter, you mean," Malian put in.  
>  "The Charter also guarantees that a holder has autonomy within his holding," Lobirn pointed out.  
>  "But his holders **have** rights."  
>  "Don't be so naïve, Rob. That's exactly what he's denying them access to," Mallan said, dropping his chair to all four legs for emphasis. "And don't go putting your head in that snake's pit. You'd never match him in a fight, and you come on strong to him on that point and he's every right to challenge you. And be sorry that he just happened to break your neck!"  
>  Robinton turned to Lobirn for support, but the Masterharper shook his head.

So there's a lot there. Yet again, instead of being something new that nobody had dealt with before, Fax has been transformed into a Chalkin retread. With what we know now, there should be Records on how one deals with the recalcitrant.

Secondly, that's a serious retcon to say that these Harpers know about the Charter (and in a little while, there will be an even more egregious retcon that says the original Charter is preserved between glass somewhere,) instead of the Charter being a thing that only was rediscovered with the unearthing and subsequent communication with AIVAS. In that same part that talks about the preserved Charter, it is also apparently taught as a Teaching Song, first in simplicity and then in complexity.

Also,

_[It's time for another cocowhat.]_

__

The casual attitude of Mallan toward the denial of education is pretty out of character from the mission of the Harpers. Yes, there is an unstated threat that anyone who points out that Fax is denying Charter rights will then have to fight him (on the grounds of "challenging his autonomy", I guess) and will likely die in the subsequent duel. And also, in an unquoted portion, Lord Faroguy is not apparently insisting on education for those people. (Which makes sense and doesn't - the opportunity to bilk the peasants is tempting, but it also means that you can't have them do anything that's any sort of complex at all, unless you're willing to spend the time showing it to them repeatedly.)

The obvious response is "Surely the Charter would have provision to penalize anyone who failed to provide basic education." But the narrative has us covered there.

> A holder was not doing his duty by his people to deny them this information.  
>  On the other hand, there was no provision made to punish holders who did not disseminate the information contained in the Charter. This was one of the shortcomings of the document. When Robinton had queried that in class, Master Washell had responded with a snort and then the notion that it must never have occurred to the writers of the Charter that anyone would be denied such rights.

_[And another cocowhat.]_

_[And the "fuck this" cat again, because...]_

_Absolutely not._ There is _no way_ that both "there are no provisions in the Charter about how to punish someone who fails to inform someone of their Charter rights" and "the Council of Lords did not pass legislation / make a decision in the aftermath of the Chalkin incident to ensure that nobody would ever be denied knowledge of their rights and responsibilities under the Charter, autonomy be damned" are _both_ true. If you want me to believe that the Charter always has been passed down through the ages (it hasn't), then you can't also assert that after the betrayal of one of their own that almost gave Thread a foothold, the remaining Lords didn't act to prevent it from happening again. And they could point immediately at the "autonomy" clause as the problem. (At least, not if you want consistency...)

It would be possible for the Lords to have fixed things, and then those records get lost or improperly preserved in writing or song, but I also suspect that Chalkin was the first in a line of problems that Fax is now picking up, so there would have been even more opportunities to come up with solutions and preserve them. Unless there's deliberate "forgetting" going on, by would require complicity on the part of the Harpers, who have a vested interest in transmitting the history and culture of Pern to the next generation, _[as well as retaining information that makes it easier for hem to kick out someone who's going to become a problem for them or for the dragonriders,]_ so that's...unlikely.

On the other side, most constitutional documents don't spell out punishments if people don't teach this information, but they're usually backed by a significant corpus of law that will more than happily spell such things out. Pern's charter canonically has punishment for rape in it. So I would believe very strongly that the Proceedings of the Council of Lords are written down somewhere and copied from generation to generation as well, and therefore there should be a corpus of law that has developed just from having to deal with questions and enterprising individuals over the 2500-year history of the planet. Even if there were several Black Death type events in the history of the planet.

_[Except, of course, it's still stated fact that there are no lawyers on Pern, which the author seems to have taken to mean there is no law outside of the Charter that applies to everyone, and that's horseshit, too - either the Lords agree on things, and those become binding, or there are enough Chalkin-like incidents that the Lords start figuring out that they need to have some planetwide laws, lest the dragonriders decide the Lords can't administer shit and decide to intervene more directly and more forcefully. Also, not for the first time, non-interventionist isolationist dragonriders seems like an improbability, especially since they rely on the Holds in their area for tithes and would be interested in making sure those tithes were appropriate and plentiful. Fax is operating in Benden's territory, and that should have brought all the boys to the yard as soon as the gravy train stopped being up to par for quantity or quality. The only way Fax gets to stay this kind of Stupid Evil and get away with it is because the narrative has a reason for him.]_

Ugh. Robinton hopes that the knowledge will still get through to all of the holders anyway, from the people willing to teach, and that closes out Chapter IX. It's a mess. Then again, it has been a while since the originals, so maybe we aren't supposed to notice this so easily.


	10. The Inevitable Tragedies Begin

Last chapter, Robinton balked that Fax could just say no to education in his hold, and furthermore that his fellow Harpers aren't forcing the issue. The narrative then tried to pass off the idea that the original charter survived all this time instead of being a rediscovery of the AI. Those two things created a situation where it should be incredibly difficult for Fax to pull off the same crap that Chalkin did.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter X: Content Notes: Fat-shaming**

We are in a training montage, of sorts, from the beginning of the chapter, as it says Robinton spends three years at High Reaches, before noting that Faroguy certainly seems on top of everything, except Fax, which Mallan speculates might be because Fax is Faroguy's from another woman before his legitimate heirs were born. Lobirn squashes that line of thought, and we are then treated to an account of "how Robinton lost his virginity." Robinton's grown up handsome, and Mallan goads him into dancing with a young holder girl, Sitta, who is interested in him, too, and then just manages to conveniently be wherever he is by chance. And welcomes him home from a trip with food and drink and an offer to warm his bed. (There's also another woman, Marcine, who has her eye on him, but Sitta is so good at being everywhere she gives up, and Triana's only really interested in him as a dance partner...) There's even the equivalent of the sock on the door -- tipping a chair against the table as an indication of a do not disturb.

Here's how Sitta's described:

> It wasn't that he hadn't noticed her, with her delicately slanting eyes and her tiny figure, set off by the bright dark blue of her Gather dress.

And now I'm a little less okay with this. Mostly because it seems to be "huge guy, tiny girl" and a vaguely Asian fetish possibly going on, but also a bit because a name like "Sitta" suggests South Asian ancestry rather than East Asian and I'm a little annoyed that the author doesn't seem to want to do the research. _[It's pretty normal for the authors to not do the research.]_

In any case, Sitta is mostly a fling for Robinton, and the narrative shifts over to another name drop situation - Carola is ill, and the only other available queen is Nemorth, who bonded with Jora, who is afraid of heights. (Which makes me think of the person who trained the Rowan, also afraid of heights and imparting it onto the Rowan.)

Carola dies afterward, and Robinton knows before everyone else because he feels Simanith's grief, but he doesn't say anything. Soon after, Robinton is recalled to the Harper Hall for a new assignment. Lord Faroguy sends Robinton in with a full purse of money and a solid recommendation. F'lon has a laugh about how it won't "matter a pile of old ashes" that Jora's terrified of heights when Nemorth is ready to mate. Before having a laugh at Robinton when Simanith just drops off the edge rather than leaping into the air to get the speed to go into hyperspace. Robinton asks Simanith for a little warning the next time.

Robinton's return means getting to see his mother again, which is slightly disturbing because she looks older and he's not ready for that. He also sees Silvina again, and the child has become a pretty woman in his absence. And then there's business and reunions and Master Gennell also telling Robinton that he should let go of Fax's decisions about education.

> "We can only do so much, Rob, and are wiser not to trespass where a harper's life might be endangered."  
>  Robinton blinked in surprise. "Endangered?"  
>  "There have been such problems before, lad, and there will again, but somehow it comes right. As long as Fax keeps his ideas to his own hold, I can do nothing. Nor is it wise to. That's something you learn as you go on. Cut your losses when you have to. One small hold in the northern lands is not as vital as a larger one nearer home, as it were.[...]

_[It's time for another cocowhat.]_

This keeps happening? And yet Pern still hasn't created a solution, regardless of the "autonomy" clause? It's okay that generations get lost on the regular and then have to be accounted for later? Just...insert last week's rant, even more so now that we know that this is a thing that happens on the regular. That this hasn't been fixed in this long is still highly improbable.

_[I can understand wanting to keep your people safe, but something like kicking out the Harpers or saying they don't need to be present should be immediately flagged up to the dragonriders as "these Lords Holder don't believe their people should know the proper duty they owe to dragonriders," at which point the dragonrideres would swiftly descend upon such a place with knives in hand to make sure that their tithes are given appropriately and to prevent any Lord Holder from instilling anything but the utmost and proper respect for the dragonriders. They're egotistical enough to be willing to do that, and possibly rough up anyone who thinks they're somehow not obligated to the dragonriders. And the presence of the Harpers in every hold is the easiest way to avoid having the dragonriders called down on you for being insufficiently pious. That's the kind of arrangement that should be be present, so that, at least in the big holds, everyone is on the party line, even if out in the outlying places and the sticks, there are rumors of other sentiments appearing. But always rumors, and rarely a thing that needs chasing down because there are more important things to do. There are a hundred thousand ways these stories could be improved by learning a little bit more into certain parts of their worldbuild and leaning away from others.]_

Gennell assigns Robinton to Benden and advises against arriving with F'lon, because Benden's Holders and Benden's Weyrleaders are not getting along with each other right now. Which gives Robinton time to catch up with his mother and to get told by both F'lon and Merelan that Silvina clearly fancies him. Petiron is off at Tillek, so it's a nice time for Robinton, catching up and singing songs with Merelan. He knows something is different, but he can't put his finger on it.

So Robinton travels by ship and learns he won't get seasick, that he can handle runnerbeasts, that the Dawn Sisters exist, and that just about everywhere he goes, he can play an evening and get the best meal and bed available.

Except, of course, in a place where Harpers are distrusted. A small hold where Targus, the holder, is not happy to have a Harper, but his wife, Kulla, is more than hospitable to him. (Even if his runner doesn't like the place.) Targus gives us a little insight as to why places might not be all in favor of Harpers.

> "Preferable?" sneered Targus as his thick and slightly greasy fingers gathered the mark piece from Robinton's palm. "Harper words. What's wrong with 'Is that good?' Or do you always have to show off your larnin'?"  
>  [...]  
>  "Why's Pa hate music so?" Erkin asked.  
>  "He says harpers sing lies," Mosser said, malice in his twinkling eyes.  
>  "Didn't hear a one," their mother said stoutly. Then she waggled her finger at Mosser. "Nor you, neither, or you'd've stirred yourself out of the room when your pa left. [...]"

And again, there is this tantalizing prospect of an entire space outside the narrative where people don't believe in Harpers, not because their lords are actively keeping them away, but because they think the Harpers are spinning some sort of lie. If only these people would be more specific about what they believe, other than "they're elitist, with their education and fancy words."

_[Admittedly, that's been a regular line of attack from the far-right fringe party of the early 21st c. United States toward the left-of-them mostly-centrist party, that having education and college makes someone out of touch with the good common folk who are the salt of the earth and don't need fancy learning to do their job well. The irony being that the people from that far-right fringe party are just as educated in elite institutions as they claim is so devastating to their opponents. Those fringers just happen to be willing to indulge in as much racism, xenophobia, and class warfare as it takes to get people to believe their group of elite will hurt the people they want hurt (and that they have been told are subhuman scum with agendas bent on destroying the very way of life that these people are working so hard to uphold.) These glimpses into an anti-Harper world would be so much richer if they had any specifics, instead of relying on the reader to have enough familiarity with the context to fill in the blanks themselves with people from their own life who have similar attitudes.]_

Robinton makes it to Benden without further incident, and is greeted by Raid and Hayara, who bring him up to speed on everything (Maizella is about to be married, and has been helping the Hold Harper, joint-ail is affecting all sorts of people). After a quick call back to which staircase he should be using, Robinton goes to help Master Evarel in the classroom, and that starts the second stay. Eventually, Evarel admits to being old and retires to the south, leaving Robinton in charge of Benden. And not too soon after, Nemorth almost gets flown and F'lon is pissed about it, because Jora faints when Nemorth gets into heat (remember that bit where queen riders see through the eyes of their dragons?) and that makes Nemorth very concerned.

But it happens, eventually, and Nemorth has a clutch, and Robinton is entirely wistful about the fact he never got the chance to be a dragonrider. F'lon complains that Maizella's spouse is fish-faced (Robinton agrees with this privately) and that he doesn't believe in Thread. Which gives Robinton the opportunity to ask about the rift between Hold and Weyr, and apparently we're back to the problem where the interval has caused disbelief in the reality of Thread.

The feast at the Weyr is fantastic (and, as another way of making sure that we understand the hierarchy, green riders help to serve the extra guests, while bronze and brown riders take seats to be served), but the narrative can still take time to shame Jora.

> She was pretty enough, in a sort of overblown way, but was already getting more plump than was healthy for a rider, not to mention for a young woman. She was flushed with the success of her young queen, Nemorth, and making what appeared to be giddy confessions to Lady Hayara, who merely listened with a polite smile plastered on her face.  
>  [...]  
>  His [F'lon's] tone turned disdainful. "Not only is she afraid of heights, but she's nervous with Nemorth, and if S'loner hadn't been helping, she'd've let the queen eat before her mating flight." He snorted in contempt.

So, for what other purpose than "the narrative wants a chew toy" did Jora Impress? Yes, we have to eventually line up with whatever was said previously about her, which was also negative, but I would have thought that being terrified of heights would have been a draconic disqualifier. The rest of it is fat-shaming and the narrative forgetting that life in a Weyr would be the most food-secure situation a person could find themselves in. It's quite possible that Jora is still adjusting away from starvation mode. Or that she would be perfectly healthy, were it not for the narrative.

Robinton leads the musical festivities, and that seems to keep spirits high, at least until Nemorth interrupts them by announcing the death of S'loner's dragon, Chendith, and the deaths of both S'loner and Lord Maidir (eventually confirmed when Lady Hayara goes back to Benden and can't find him) in what is determined to be an accident - S'loner had been having chest pains, so it's possible a heart attack killed him at the crucial point, and Chendith took Lord Maidir with him, because he was the unlucky passenger. Lady Hayara said that Robinton's music had been possibly mending the rift, but she couldn't hear because Jora was talking (she didn't say so specifically, but the implication is clear). Jora, of course, is far too drunk and passed out to be easily revived (because narrative chew toy), and the party gets broken up pretty soon afterward. 

F'lon is unhappy that Robinton asked C'gan for transit back. Robinton points out that F'lon just lost his father, which F'lon dismisses as unimportant because Weyrbred and tell me again why Robinton isn't also having trouble with this? He's been concerned that Merelan will die soon, and he's still stuck in the situation where Petiron won't acknowledge him, so why is he still so put together? Is he going to fall apart once the immediacy wears off? The text notes that Robinton is envious of the fact that F'lon _had_ a relationship with his father. But the chapter ends with Robinton heading back to Benden, so there's going to be other crises to deal with before Robinton can process his own feelings.

I realize this is Act II, where the tragedies happen and the old guard gives way to the new characters, but these stories don't seem to have situations where someone, say, lives a full life and then passes away in their sleep. Except Robinton himself. Everything seems to change in violence. Which might seem like a good idea to make backgrounds more interesting, but it also means just about all the main characters have tragedies and traumas in their backgrounds, too.

And maybe I'm starting to get sick of it.


	11. Damage Control

Last chapter, Robinton was again warned away from trying to change Fax's attitude toward education, and tragedies struck Benden Weyr in succession as an old Weyrwoman died and then the Benden Weyrleader and Lord Holder of Benden were killed in a dragon accident.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter XI: Content Notes:**

The chapter opens with Robinton returning to Benden and checking in with Maizella. Lady Hayara has already taken a sleeping draught for her grief, and Maizella is about to do the same. Raid has taken charge, which Maizella thinks is too soon after the tragedy, and has requested Robinton drum out the news of the tragedy. And then Robinton has to man the tower all night to manage the replies and the messaging and the requests for dragon transport until someone can relieve him and he can get actual sleep.

That said, there is a really impressive response that organizes to bring food and help in the kitchens and provide people to talk to the family with. When F'lon wakes Robinton later, he lets him know that Fax tagged along (apparently grinning from ear to ear, despite the tragedy), that Gennell is asking for him, and that the other people of the family may not be all that happy with Raid taking charge. And that Robinton should bathe before dealing with any of this. Which he does, and then leaves F'lon to sleep while he goes out to do his duty.

Robinton reports in to a gathering of Masters (and it is only now that I fully notice Masterhealer Ginia is she, which suggests there's another possible retcon going on there, although the Healer Hall has been much more all genders than the other halls, even in the past books), and there is some debate about who will lead Benden Weyr now as well as more skepticism about the return of Thread, before the Masters are summoned to a council meeting. Raid inherits Benden officially, and the Masters want to speak with any remaining bronze dragonriders, so they send Robinton to find them.

_[The commenters on the original point out that this also means there's a fully functioning Healer Hall that's going to comehow be collapsed down into Oldive and maybe a few other people by the time we make it to the Harper Hall trilogy, which is going to be a real interesting trick to explain away. Assuming the author even tries, which she doesn't.]_

The riders are listening to Manora's account that S'loner was having arm pains a lot (classic sign of cardiac issues in cis white men), and that Maidir wanted to go home, so S'loner used it as an excuse to get away. They report that back to the council.

Then we get to see Fax twirling his Snidely Whiplash mustache, as Robinton notices Lord Faroguy is clearly not well and Fax comments into Robinton's ears about how he's certain there will be another need for a council. While there are no specifics told, if I were Robinton, and especially because Robinton doesn't like Fax, I'd tell Gennell about what I heard, just in case it becomes relevant and I need a witness or two to back my statement. But for now, Lord Faroguy is convinced to go see the Masterhealer, and Robinton is advised to make sure F'lon and Fax do not meet each other, lest tensions flare into more violence.

Robinton lets F'lon sleep and gets some of his own, before F'lon wakes him and then stalks back to Benden, having missed his opportunity to confront or whatever he planned to do. Robinton sees the Masters and gets sobering news that Faroguy has "a disease of the blood for which there is no cure for a man his age." Which makes me wonder what it is, and if it's Terran or Pern-native, and also, based on the way that Faroguy is described as wasting away, pings ever so faintly of HIV as the cause. Or that Faroguy has been poisoned in some manner. We'll never know, as Robinton turns the discussion to Fax and his refusal to admit Harpers, with Gennell taking the information under advisement and telling Robinton to keep him informed.

And then Raid takes over Benden. And seems to be able to run it capably, if bluntly. Robinton tries to soften the edges where possible, until Raid calls him in to his office and fires him from being Hold Harper.

> "I am Lord Holder and what I say is how things will be. I do **not** need you soothing down disgruntled holders or denigrating my efforts behind my back.  
>  [...]  
>  I hearby release you from your contract." Raid tossed a pouch of marks across the table to Robinton. "I shall request a replacement from the MasterHarper. Without prejudice, of course, since you have discharged your duties with efficiency and energy."  
>  [...]  
>  "You may drum that bronze rider friend of yours to convey you back. Give this"--he fielded a little roll of hide to join the pouch--"to Master Gennell. You do not suit me as Hold Harper." Then he rose to his feet, to indicate the meeting was over.

Blunt, certainly, and probably perceived as very rude for not couching it or softening the blow, but also very direct, which can be a good thing in a leader.

_[Raid is, of course, entitled to have the staff he wants and to convey the attitude he wants, but it seems pretty blinkered of him to fire his best PR man for doing his job correctly. I get the feeling that Raid is the kind of person that wants to be hands-on in everything that he can be, and doesn't want to compromise or otherwise have his ideas workshopped or audience tested or otherwise given the treatment that a lot of people think takes **bold!** and **visionary!** ideas and concepts and turns them into mealy-mouthed milquetoast designed to be as inoffensive as possible to the greatest number of people. And, because he's the Lord with infinite power over everything, he can basically insist on things happening exactly the way he wants and fire, revoke, or otherwise get rid of anyone who suggests to him that this way of doing things is not actually good and will make him hated and resented by his own people, unless his bluntness is accompanied by an unerringly good ability to do what's right for the Hold. Were it not for the fact that there is no tech at this point in the timeline, Raid might be a reasonably good idea of a techbro, or the kind of CEO that is going to make Changes and put their stamp on the company, regardless of whether it's actually a good idea to do any of that.]_

Robinton heads up to the tower to request a dragon, and Hayon, after getting the truth, remarks that Robinton did quite a bit to soothe ruffled feathers, and that the rest of the family will miss him. F'lon arrives, gives Robinton a small amount of grief about getting canned, saying Robinton would be better employed elsewhere anyway, and takes him back. Gennell agrees with that assessment, essentially, and offers Robinton his pick of six locations to go next. Robinton picks Tillek, for the additional bonus of studying for his Mastery under someone who regularly attends court. Because "Applications of the Charter and the Precepts of Arbitration and Mediation, advanced aspects of the Harper Hall's purview" is on his class list for Mastery.

This is the point where I crow ever so slightly and point out that there are lawyers on Pern, as I have always suspected. They're Harpers, as I have also suspected. They just don't do adversarial courts that much, and are instead arbitrators and mediators, because they are supposed to be impartial. So yes, the legal profession survived, it just got folded into Harper duties.

_[Obviously, this is a large retcon, and it seems like it's a concession to the reality of how vassalage feudalism actually worked in Latin Christendom and an admission that a Lord is going to have to dispense justice, resolve disputes, and otherwise manage the people in their domain when those people come into conflict and need to appeal to a higher power. The Lord can't do it all themselves, so they're going to have to have sheriffs, bailiffs, reeves, and other government functionaries that Pern has tried their damndest to avoid admitting the need for throughout all of these books. And the Harpers, as the learned and elite scholars, fill the role of administrators, clerks, arbitrators, and the like very nicely. The narrative won't admit that there's a high likelihood that each assigned Master has several Journey-rank and probably some apprentice-rank staff to help them with these tasks, except when it comes to the Masterharper's spy network, and even then, some of that work is delegated. There are so many other people in this world who are functionally invisible, because the narrative can't be arsed sufficiently to think about how the logistics of everything works.]_

Accompanying Robinton to Tillek is Groghe, and the two are supposed to settle an issue over a broken fence between one of Grogellan's herders and Melongel's foresters. Both blame the other for not fixing the fence when a storm blew trees into the old stone fence and wrecked it. Robinton defuses the feud by saying both sides will build their side of the wall and provide mortar to make sure it sticks. When they both complain, Robinton says it will be interesting to see who can build their side first, tapping into their bickering and competitive nature. (This sounds like a folktale. Is it?) And then, to prove his point, Robinton says he'll sing songs from on top of the fencepost between the two lands. He goes off to bed down with one side, Groghe with the other.

The description of the cot is rather interesting:

> The main room was obviously where most interior work was done, but it was separated into sections: one for the women's tasks, another for the men's, with an eating area and well-made chairs at near the fireplace.  
>  [...]  
>  "I'll show you where the bath is," [Valrol, a son of the holder] said, and Robinton murmured thanks, rummaging in his pack for his towel, soap, and a clean shirt.  
>  The bath was actually heated by some connection with the hearth, so it was not the cold wash that he could have expected.

Oh? Do tell about these "men's" and "women's" tasks, Robinton.

Also tell me where you're getting travel soap and a towel from, given that what we had before was soapsand and possibly furs to dry off with, and what this engineering marvel is that allows for warm bath water without also dumping smoke into the space is. I'm very curious to know how these amenities made it all the way out to the frontiers. Is there a curious Smith around somewhere, or an engineer in the making? We find out that one of the daughters has been turning out exceptional woodcraft (in Robinton's opinion), so perhaps she constructed the device? There's so much here I want to know about, and yet will be denied again, because the author has no interest at all in making the details stick, much less be consistent.

Robinton sings that night, and it seems to do good in mending attitudes as well as fences, such that everyone is ready to go at the wall in the morning. Robinton leaves songs behind and an instruction to get the families singing again, which will help them stay good neighbors, along with the wall.

And that's Chapter XI - Robinton still unable to get anyone to act against Fax, and then getting fired and reassigned, stopping along the way to fix a problem. For as much time as we're spending outside the cities of Pern, we're still not getting a whole lot of information about how this part of the world works. They exist to be a set piece in the plot, and then we're on our way again to the city. Makes me wish the author had written a book about people who aren't mobile and yet still manage to have adventure and the like. I think a lower decks episode would be quite illuminating.


	12. On Assignment, Part Two

Last chapter, Raid fired Robinton and he took an assignment in Tillek, which also involved mediating a dispute with a solution that seems clever.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter XII: Content Notes: Ablism, sexism, boundary violations**

Robinton and Groghe arrive in Tillek and meet Lord Melongel, who Robinton takes a liking to, as he's a bit of a polymath Holder who understands fishing, ships, lumber, forestry, and agriculture, while also being qualified to serve as a ship captain. Master Minnarden gives a warm welcome to Robinton, and asks if he can use his talent with helping people understand to get some of the slower students up to the same level as the others. He also wants Robinton to train the choral singers, train up some apprentices for drumming, and possibly compose a bit, too. Minnarden also believes very strongly in the return of Thread, although he's apparently in the minority about whether it will come back. He tells Robinton to learn fishing, as well, and also gives Robinton a book to study.

> "If you haven't memorized the Charter, you'd better, and study some of the more common infractions." Minnarden grinned. "That aspect of our jobs can be quite interesting at times..." He paused to sigh. "And at others, about as infuriating as dealing with the dumbest, most insubordinate, mentally deficient adolescent male."

That's some terribly ablist rhetoric of you, Minnarden. I think we're supposed to believe him uncritically, having witnessed an incident that would be rather trying in the chapter before. To do so would also further accept the continuity change that insists the Charter has always been there and there are records of infractions and that the Harpers do a lot of the justice process as impartial arbitrators, even though it's still firmly established that Lords are absolute in their domains. So I'll guess that Lords can overrule Harper decisions, and based on last chapter, that perhaps members of the family or other higher-ranking holders act as reeves and bailiffs for Lordly justice that doesn't rise high enough to warrant formal court. Which doesn't make sense, not really, unless there's a decree worldwide that Harper arbitration is binding and must be backed with the force of the Lord's law, regardless of where they are. Which might make Fax's exclusion decision make more sense, so that he is the only source of law and that nobody refers to a Charter that he would then have to enforce if they cited it. Fax doesn't seem like the kind of person, though, that would respect the Charter, and then would make sure the objection never escaped his borders, like Chalkin attempted.

Still terribly ablist.

_[And also seems to suggest the Charter is a lot more detailed of a document than it might seem at first , because once we're talking about "most common infractions," it makes the Charter more and more like a legal code than a founding and guiding document. But if that's the case, I would have expected there to be a lot more in there about various offenses, including the detailed one about what to do when one of the Lords starts abusing his population, or the one about what a fair tax is to be collected, or the one that calls down the wrath of the dragonriders if you don't give them their proper tithe from your best stores. Even though the Charter predates the dragonriders, I can see it being codified through amendments before calcifying into this supposedly unchanging and immutable document that nobody has ever used as the basis for a legal code, or that has ever been changed, despite all the decisions made by the Lords over all of this time. It's a Charter that can be whatever it needs to be to justify the plot, so the author doesn't have to think up something else that could be used as a legal code, or to have to keep straight which Lords have banned what in their spaces.]_

Robinton also meets Kasia, who has perpetual sadness in her eyes because she lost her lover to an accident right before they were to be espoused (married, but y'know, ostensibly nonreligious world). But Robinton crushes on her, because when she's not terminally sad, she's pretty and sparkly and merry.

And she also has an eidetic memory and a good voice, which I think is something Robinton is really interested in, given his own gifts.

Robinton is not the only person who wants to woo her, but he does at least have the sense to pause over her still being in grief. (Also because she's older, but that's not actually important.) He still sets out to cheer her up from her grief, however, so it's not actually as many points as it could be.

_[I don't think she fully qualifies for Manic Pixie Dream Girl. And they're too far south for her to be Sad Girl In Snow, but I think Kasia is supposed to be an amalgam of both of those things for Robinton.]_

Since she's envious of his harp, Robinton contrives to have one made for her, asking the local Masterwoodsmith to keep him some good pieces and to do a little of the fancy carving work, while he tries (repeatedly) to carve the rest of the harp himself. This work is interrupted by things like fishing trips, where the narrative trips over itself by making Robinton express an opinion that I don't think he would have:

> The female sailors surprised Robinton. He was accustomed, being Harper-trained, to women having equal status as performers and composers,

Lying cat says _**retcon!**_ (Rehash the problem of Menolly here.)

> but it had never occurred to him that other Crafts had promoted women to positions of trust and responsibility.

_[And that's a cocowhat for an audacious lie.]_

Did I not just mention, last chapter, that _the Masterhealer, who has been a friend since childhood, is a woman_? It should not be a stretch of the brain for Robinton to think of women being in positions of responsibility in other Crafts. Unless, of course, Robinton has internalized an idea that there are "men's crafts" and "women's crafts" and his surprise is not that there's a woman doing Craft work, but that there are women doing Men's Craft work.

_[There's a certain amount of support for that idea, given that the last smallhold he was in, he saw there were spaces for "men's work" and "women's work", but he also has a Mastersinger for a mother, who taught him how to knock heads and defend others, and otherwise was exactly a woman in positions of trust and responsibility. If Robinton decided to replace and invalidate his own mother's experience and life with some sexist idea, I want to know when it happened, and who was responsible, because otherwise, this seems like a really weird thing for Robinton to be surprised by. And weird that in all of his travels and assignments, once he left the Hall (who also has a Journeywoman healer that his mother is friends with), he never came across another Journey-level or Master who was a woman until now. Maybe at this point, whatever it is that has caused all the crafts to jettison all their women has been underway for a while, and Robinton is surprised to see someone still in power, instead of being surprised that someone has been promoted to power. That would make more sense, even if it doesn't explain the sudden hanging of the "No Girls Club" sign on all the doors.]_

Robinton also gets to meet shipfish, and discusses them with a surprisingly knowledgeable sailor, Gostol. Robinton deduces correctly that they sing, but Gostol dismisses it as just putting air through blowholes, as if that's not singing because it doesn't involve a larynx.

Gostol also says that the shipfish rescue sailors, lead them to good caches, and are generally considered good luck signs that get fed regularly from the fishers. (I smell a retcon. If I recall correctly, originally, the shipfish were considered unlucky to get in a net, and forbidden to hurt, but all the stories of them helping were considered unverified rumors, and so nobody really paid attention to them. _[At least until Readis II made a proper go of it and ends up becoming the Dolphineer. Which hasn't happened in this timeline yet.]_ )

On the trip, Robinton tries to cheer Kasia up as much as possible, and has a moment of "does she like me?" when she uses his nickname and leans into him some while there's a docking test going on for another crewperson. And the two of them stroll after they disembark, occasionally brushing hands and laughing, and Robinton is pretty sure that they have a thing going on, such that

> He didn't think--he just caught her about the waist, pulled her to him and kissed her.  
>  He hadn't known he was going to before he did, and as she leaned into him, arms about his neck, he was thrilled that she didn't reject him. It was the sweetest of kisses but far too short because, hearing steps coming down one of the halls, they broke apart.

Cue Robinton fantasizing about their espoused life together, from a single kiss he stole from her, without getting her consent, without asking, in the heat of the moment. To his perceptions, she seems to be responding well to his advances. What he needs is a sit-down and a come-to-Jesus type of meeting about consent, but this is Pern, so none will be forthcoming. And he does come back toward reality when he figures out that Kasia might not actually ascribe any deeper meaning to their kiss...and then starts to pendulum back and forth between "I'm not good enough for her" and "She's totally into me" while he works on the harp, hoping to get it done in time for her birthing day celebration.

He does, but didn't want to present it in public, so he gets another gift, tells her he has something he wants to give her in private, and then watches the other gifts come through, several of which are quite pretty and valuable. Eventually, there's a quiet moment, and he presents the harp, and she's stunned by all the work that goes into it. She also calls him Robie, which I had expected to be a nickname of mother and son, and that the name she would use would be Rob. Or perhaps Robinton.

Because this is Pern, and Robinton is a main character, and because he's already been established as being tremendously sexy, even in his older age, of course Robinton has guessed right about her affections, and the two of them end up having sex (at least, that's what the narrative implies to me) in the workshop where he presents her with the gift.

Kasia tells him that her sister, Juvana, approves of the matching. Her sister knows because Kasia has been talking about "Rob" nearly incessantly to her. Everyone seems to think it's a good match for all of them, because Robinton is much more understanding and perceptive than her last lover was, and Kasia seems to be on board with the idea of traveling around the world with him. So they announce their betrothal, with the intent to espouse in the autumn. And Robinton is encouraged to send a message to his parents announcing the engagement as well. Kasia has picked up on the fact that Robinton doesn't talk about his father, doesn't mention him as father, and otherwise generally tries to avoid talking about his father, even though he has a lot to say about his mother on the regular. She also notes that everyone is singing Robinton's songs, not Petiron's.

_[To put it mildly, this is a whirlwind romance, and it plays squarely into bad romance tropes, starting with Robinton deciding he's going to cheer Kasia up from her melancholy, without asking if that's what she wants, which leads into him taking a kiss from her without asking her if that's what she wants, and then giving her an expensive gift in private, which seems to set off them having sex, which could be read to be that Robinton expected to be rewarded for his gift with sex (in the same way, that, say, people who believe in the idea of involuntary celibacy and in the efficacy of pick-up artistry think that there's a formula to be followed where doing all of the right things means that you are owed sex from the person you are trying to pick up), and now, Robinton is proposing espousal for Kasia, even though they don't really seem to know each other all that well. In the kind of society that Pern is part of, proposing marriage in this way is usuall something that happens when there's a pregnancy or there's the assumption that a woman who has had sex is somehow less valuable as a wife and should be married to the person who had sex with her. Those rules usually apply to virgins in that society, and Kasia is explicitly said to have been recovering from grief at the death of a lover, so that's not an explanation for why Robinton is so swift off the blocks to propose espousal. Maybe it's because this is the first time that the narrative has told us that Robinton is interested in someone for more than a fling. So it might be that he's finally fallen in love for the first tie and he's not thinking clearly about things in his rush to want to keep Kasia close by. And it's not like Kasia could really refuse him, since she's already had a lover and espousal is still the best way on Pern, save being a dragonrider, to make sure you're taken care of and provided for as a woman.]_

Juvana has an interesting thing to say about how their relationship will proceed, though.

> "I have already discussed this with Kasia and she will protect herself, which is her duty, until such time as you are settled enough to contemplate children."  
>  Robinton blushed. He and Kasia had not discussed the natural outcome of their lovemaking, and he realized that he had been remiss in this regard.  
>  Juvana went on. "I offer the suggestion that you should spend several years enjoying each other's company, consolidating your new relationship, especially since neither of you need children to help in your professions."

Juvana also goes on to give a blanket offer to foster any kids if it turns out that Robinton's constantly moving nature makes it impossible for him to raise them, which is apparently an incredibly high honor to receive.

But I'm curious, again. When Juvana talks about Kasia protecting herself, what exactly is she talking about? Is it just not having sex with Robinton until they're ready for children, or is there still some actual method of birth control that's used and practiced on Pern? It would be fantastic if we could get a definitive answer one way or another. Augh.

Robinton is pretty overwhelmed that asking someone to espouse involves a lot of things that he's not figured out were part of the deal. And then volunteers to go out on the long sweep of teaching so that he can get enough time to himself to compose a sonata for Kasia that's threatening to stick in his head forever and ever unless he gets it out on paper. 

While out on the tour, however, one of the cotholders has some terrible news for him coming out of the High Reaches.

> "Once, twice, maybe, Harper," Chochol said in his rough voice, pitched low so that not even the herdbeasts grazing nearby could hear what he said, "I would not worry. Anyone can come to a disagreement with his Holder. But there have been eight lots an they arrive scared of their shadows. Wounded, and the pretty ones have been badly handled." He paused, indicating with a nod what he wouldn't say about their condition. "Badly handled." He emphasized the repetition with a second sharp nod. Then he pointed down the hillside, which was grassland with a few stunted trees. "Twice"--he held up two thick, work- callused fingers--"the womemn were sure that Lord Faroguy must be dead for such things to happen in High Reaches. Scared my spouse, that did. But we see anything coming up here and I tell her we're in Tillek, holding with Lord Melongel, who's a fair holder if ever there was one, and the time hasn't come where one Lord'll run over what another has owned since his Blood took Hold."

We know, of course, that Fax will go on to do just that, breaking the social contract (and the actual Charter) in his quest to conquer and badly mismanage as much of the world as he can, but this is turning Fax into a retread of Chalkin, in terms of cruelty and brutality, if not rules-lawyering, and it looks like this Pass is going to let it happen again because of the autonomy rule. Which, if records were actually being preserved and kept, would point out that the Council of Lords has already once told a Lord to sod off (pound sand?) over Charter violations that were witnessed and reported to them. Including mistreatment of their holders and sexual violence. The author is asking us to watch the same story again and _nobody has learned anything_ from the last time, which was in the last book, even if that book was theoretically several thousand years ago. After this report to him, Robinton is able to finish his Sonata for Kasia.

And she welcomes him back with open arms and there is talking and lovemaking in nearly equal quantity. Kasia tells him about how wonderful he is, over his own protests and worries that he's essentially set himself up as the master negotiator based on good success on his first time around. I hear you there, Robinton. Expectations can be terrifying and follow you around all the days of your life.

Robinton makes his report to Melongel and talks about the reports he received from Chochol, which Melongel correlates with requests from holders for easement on tithes based on an unexpected number of dependents. Robinton speculates that Faroguy may be dead and nobody has been informed, which, if that is the case, is the first tactically sound move Fax has made all book - if nobody knows who is actually in charge, it gives Fax time to consolidate and expand his power. Melongel decides to provoke the issue by asking Faroguy to join them at Tillek's next Gather, (which is the one where Robinton and Kasia will be espoused) and asks Robinton his opinion on Fax and whether Faroguy's son, Farvene, would be able to keep Fax away from the levers of power. Their opinions are similar, and Melongel tells Robinton he wants him to sit in Court that morning with Minnarden and himself before dismissing him back to Kasia.

Robinton gripes about having to listen to the arguments and excuses and decide fines for infractions. Which seems to make the Harpers more bailiffs than arbitrators or mediators, although they theoretically derive their authority from the Charter and not the local Lord. That said, the local Lord is the person with the power to actually compel people, so it really does seem a lot more like the Harpers are not as independent as they say they are.

Robinton is also having doubts about his Sonata, and desperately would like to run a performance of it past someone with an ear to tell him if it will be any good, especially "the crescendo that was also an orgasm." He is finally able to when his mother arrives, bearing a piece of work that Petiron wrote to be sung at the espousal. As before, it is a work entirely different than his usual oeuvre. Petiron is saying, perhaps, that he cares, in the way he can. Except _he's not there._ It would be trivially easy for him to request time off for his son's espousal, and yet, he's not there. So he doesn't necessarily care enough to stop work or travel. 

_[It's also possible that Petiron realizes that his presence at Robinton's espousal would turn what is supposed to be a happy day into a miserable one, because everyone will be walking on eggshells to try and make sure that Petiron, Merelan, and Robtinton don't end up in a knock-down drag-out shouting match or worse because of something insensitive that Petiron will say. But that would be giving Petiron self-awareness enough to recognize how badly he's fucked things up with his child and his wife, and Petiron doesn't have that. He sent along a composition with Merelan, which might very well be something that Robinton doesn't want anything to do with, or things is wholly inappropriate for the espousal, or is just a well of unpleasant memories that Robinton doesn't want to deal with. Given how estranged the two of them are, the composition might be seen as an act of hostility, of someone who didn't give a damn then trying to get back into Robinton's life, with no apologies, no acknowledgements, and no indication that Petiron has learned anything at all about why what he did was wrong. The composition could easily be seen as a demand to play something, to insist that Petiron be allowed to be part of the ceremony and the espousal when he doesn't deserve any sort of place in it at all. We don't know, because we don't see what Robinton's reaction to the gift is, or whether he asks Merelan why she brought it when he doesn't want to be reminded of his father. Because Robinton is apparently too obsessed with making sure his own composition is perfect.]_

Merelan reads the Sonata, plays it, and then gives Robinton a solid chiding when he says he hasn't shown it to Kasia because he's concerned it isn't good enough. Merelan sends him away to do it immediately, which leads to an extended flashback of Robinton getting fitted for his wedding suit, where the tailor is trying to accentuate his body, but also jokes with Robinton about how he could not imagine Robinton showing off, not realizing that not showing off is Robinton's survival mechanism for avoiding Petiron's abuse and is showing up in all of his attempts to not gather fame and renown to himself because he still hasn't resolved that part where drawing attention to himself brings negative consequences from his father.

The tailor convinces Robinton to buy more than just fine Gather clothing, but some shirts and pants as well, because they made his figure look good, even though Robinton is usually the sort of person to buy clothes off the rack for considerably cheaper. The long flashback done, Robinton copies out his Kasia songs for his mother to take back, and then realizes what time it is before landing in bed. Thus ends Chapter XII.

...it's probably because I've been reading this series for too long that I cringe in anticipation of whatever tragedy is about to befall the couple at their wedding. We'll find out next week.


	13. Espousal Bells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter can be skipped in its entirety, if you do not want to read the account of Robinton's spouse dying and the suicidal depression that puts him in, or if such accounts would be triggering to you. The only things that are plot-important here are people dying and people wanting to die.

Last time, Robinton got engaged to a daughter of the Lord he's serving under. And also heard very disturbing reports of women being assaulted in Fax's neck of the woods, which he duly reported and was told nothing would happen.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapters XIII and XIV: Content Notes: Natural Disasters, Spousal Deaths, Dragon Deaths, Suicidal Ideation, Fridging Women**

It's Espousal Day! For Robinton and several other couples, to be done at the Gather today. Which would sound a lot like having people get married on the day the priest is going to be there, except the Harpers are the priests, and so there's a reason for it, but nobody says.

Robinton is looking good in his clothes, still a bit annoyed at having to sit court, and smiles when healer Clostan has mock horror for Robinton having to play for the Gather, even though he's getting espoused.

Lord Melongel conveys Lord Faroguy's regrets at my being able to attend the Gather, but the message is off, subtly.

> "Now that's the oddity. I've known Faroguy a long time. Had many messages from him, and he always inquires after Juvana. She spent a Turn with Lady Evelene, you know. Odd that he didn't this time."  
>  Robinton felt a surge of concern. "If he is ill, could the message have come from someone else?"  
>  "Farvene would have asked, too," Melongel frowned. "Well, we've enough to do today without adding other problems. I see you've finished your meal so we'd best adjourn to the Court Hall. We've a full morning."

And he just _leaves it there_ , without either Robinton or Melongel even making a gesture at the possibility that Robinton already heard about - Fax is in control and sent that message off to deflect suspicion. That's terrible characterization _[, and Melongel, at the very least, should be investigating what is going on, because he is very clearly going to be affected by the refugees and the actions that Fax is taking in his territory. Even if all he does today is dispatch someone trustworthy to monitor the situation, armed with the information that Robinton has already gathered.]_

(I also note Melongel uses the familiar address for Faroguy, so perhaps Lords are exempt from having it drilled into their heads that business about "always Lord [X], even in your head.")

Robinton and Melongel head toward the court building, which means going through the Gather, already in progress. Robinton notes "official crafthall and independent booths were doing a good business.," a detail that has been curiously lacking at other descriptions of festivals, and that opens up a completely new line of questions that I would love answers to. How does one get an independent booth - is it just a matter of paying in enough to get a space? Does someone need to have achieved sufficient guild rank in their craft before they're allowed to go independent? Is there a conglomerate of discount goods providers or a trading company that offer materials that don't have the guild stamp but are good enough for the common people? And how regularly do they come? Is there price-fixing? Or is there a significant overt or subtle campaign from the guilds to only by guild goods in the same idea as "Buy American" or other such things? So many questions.

Before he gets to court, the family Robinton helped at the wall appears long enough to give him a carved wooden bowl as an espousal gift, the quality of which makes Lord Melongel sit up and take notice. Robinton then gets excused from court because F'lon has brought Kasia's parents and Robinton needs to meet them properly before marrying their daughter. Things go well, although Juvana and F'lon keep talking about Robinton's composition abilities and the popularity of his songs, much to Robinton's annoyance and chagrin (because popularity is bad because it gets you noticed. Note the trail of trauma.)

Juvana and F'lon both tease Robinton about the fact that he's going to have Melongel as a brother-in-law, and that they like him because that thought did not cross his mind until they pointed it out. Eventually, they go get the harp Robinton made for Kasia and that puts Robinton on familiar ground when they ask him to play some on it.

There are six couples set to be espoused at the espousal ceremony. Robinton and Kasia go first, and while we don't get the exact text, we do get a summary of what the vows are like on Pern.

> [...]he announced his intentions to be a loving, kind, considerate spouse, caring for her all his life, nurturing their children, and providing for the family.  
>  [...Kasia repeats the vows, with a broader grin and a wink on the part about children...]  
>  "We have heard your promises, Robinton and Kasia," Melongel said, stern in his capacity as Lord Holder.  
>  "And we have witnessed them," Master Minnarden said while the other craftmasters murmured their traditional response.

I would have liked to see the actual text of the ritual vow, but that's just me. I also see this sly reference to the "heard and witnessed" that will eventually bring Fax to a duel that kills him. It adds more questions, though - who needs to be present for a thing to be officially witnessed? Do they have to have rank? Is it necessary in writing as well? _[Is a contract of espousal made in one Lord's domain still valid and binding in another's?]_ For a place that claims it has no lawyers, there are all these hints of an extremely well-developed legal system.

Merelan has advice for her son.

> "Be as happy as I have been with your father," Merelan whispered for his ear alone, and when he tensed, she held him slightly away, giving him a hard, long look. "For we have been happy...together." And he realized she spoke the truth: that it had always been he who had the problem with his father. " **You've** the heart big enough to love an entire world," she added. Then she released him.

_[Yeah, there's a cocowhat, and also, the Fuck Everything Cat.]_

That's _terrible_ advice, given carelessly and clearly damaging to Robinton's psyche. Because, as he does, it encourages him to see himself as the problem, the thing that kept his mother and father from happiness. That's completely false. There's got to be better advice you could give, Merelan, perhaps remembering that rough time where you spent a year at Benden because of Petiron's behavior _[, and all the fighting that's happened between them, and how much we've seen Merelan be completely unhappy with Petiron. All of it, apparently, related to Robinton, and it being Robinton's fault for getting between them. Which isn't so much as gaslighting as confirming for Robinton that neither of his parents actually loved him, even though Merelan did a much better job of pretending she did, or at least knowing what the right things to say and do were to raise a child.]_

The party continues, and Robinton is ready to punch out F'lon for his continued teasing, but manages to avoid it through his mother starting her singing set. Kasia eventually suggests that F'lon is putting up a front because he's in love with someone. Robinton asks Simanith if he knows, but Simanith only knows F'lon is concerned about Larna, and not the why. Robinton leaves it, though, because he has a spouse and a night with her, before they steal off to sail on their honeymoon.

Which is ruined after a few days by a giant storm that threatens to capsize the boat, which they manage to sail through and find shelter, but then comes the greater task of keeping Kasia warm and feeding her soup and then trying to figure out how to get somewhere that she can get a Healer because she's not warming up at all. Robinton is not confident in his sailing skills, but Kasia is able to guide him in the instructions and they do eventually find another ship to rescue them. Which is Captain Idarolan's ship, in another case of namedropping. And that's chapter XIII, essentially - another potential disaster at sea for Kasia, and everyone at least back to land safely. This being Pern, however, I won't turn off the disaster alarm until everyone is certain they're healthy and there's no sign of sickness or plot-induced fridging.

Which is why when Chapter XIV opens with Kasia still having a nagging cough, I'm not feeling good about the direction this is going. Then there are blizzards, for which Melongel opens up his storerooms to feed the hungry, and a fever ripping through the classroom to "the old aunties and uncles," for which both Robinton (the dubiously healthy) and Kasia (the clearly sick) volunteer as nurses. Kasia gets sick with the fever, and the remedies that help others don't seem to be helping her, in the same way that they don't always help the aunties and uncles with "no stamina."

> Just before dawn on the fifth day of her burning fever and hacking cough, when Melongel and Clostan had joined the vigil, she opened her eyes, smiled at Robinton leaning over her, and, with a sigh, closed them. And was still.  
>  "No, no. **No! No! Kasia! Joy can't leave me alone!**  
>  He was shaking her, trying to rouse her, when he felt Juvana's hands pulling him away. He clutched Kasia to him, stroking her hair, her cheeks, trying to coax life back into her body.  
>  It took Melongel and Clostan to pull him away from her, while Juvana arranged her on the bed. And Clostan forced a potion down his throat.  
>  "We did all we could, Rob, all we could. It's just sometimes not enough." And Robinton heard the pain of the healer as plain as he felt his own.

In another call-forward to Menolly, Merelan sings the funeral rite and Robinton flings the harp he made into the water on the last note.

In "Things that piss Silver off mightily," I don't like being right when I worry someone is about to be fridged. Because Kasia's entire existence in the narrative is to get over her grief, fall in love, marry, and then die to give Robinton the pain of a decreased spouse on top of his other traumas. She exists to be fridged.

As one might expect, the death of his spouse puts Robinton into a terrible depression. And, when F'lon comes to visit, the likelihood of some strong drinking. F'lon, however, has come to both express his grief for Kasia and to share his own grief for the death of Larth that turns L'tol back into Lytol. F'lon offers Robinton a quick and permanent solution to his grief.

> "Couldn't be simpler," the dragonrider said drolly. "We go out to Simanith, he takes you in his arms, we go **between** and Simanith opens his arms"--which F'lon demonstrated with an upward flourish--"and only the two of us go on to Benden. Simple."  
>  "Yes, simple," Robinton said, thinking almost wistfully of the cold black nothingness of **between** where one felt nothing, heard nothing, was shortly nothing.  
>  Tears filled his eyes and his heart seemed to burst. He'd been cold so long now. It would be simple...but...it wasn't simple.  
>  "No, it isn't simple," F'lon said gently, and Robinton realized he had spoken aloud. "There's something in us humans that clings to life even when the most beloved one we have leaves us. Lytol couldn't go when we gave him the option. He was badly burned and too full of fellis and numbweed to be able to decide. And when he could, he decided to go back to High Reaches with his family."  
>  Robinton gave a start. "That's not a wise place for anyone to be right now. Much less a...former dragonrider."  
>  F'lon shrugged. "His choice. He needs his family right now. I saw your mother is still here."  
>  "Yes, she's been wonderful. Everyone has."  
>  "So, let's get on with life, shall we?" The kindness in that soft gentle suggestion reached and thawed the cold "nothingness" Robinton had been enduring.  
>  "Thank you, F'lon," he said as he rose. "I think I'd better eat something, and you look as if you could stand a good meal, too."  
>  Indeed, F'lon looked haggard as well as weary, but at Robinton's suggestion, his smile flickered. Stretching an arm across the harper's shoulder, he wheeled him to face the door and then accompanied him out of the room and down to the warm kitchen to ask for a meal.

Everything is not okay for Robinton, as Tillek contains memories that can't easily be evaded, but at least the crisis has passed.

If you are feeling like the nothingness, or that life would be better without you, and you are in the United States, the [National Suicide Prevention Hotline](https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/) can be called at 1-800-273-8255. For queer youth, [The Trevor Project](https://www.thetrevorproject.org/) is at 1-866-488-7386. There is also the [Trans Lifeline](http://www.translifeline.org) at 1-877-565-8860.

There are also likely resources more locally for you, and if you are not in the States, there are resources and helplines for you. There are people that can help. And talk.

_[And several more resources for getting away from people that abuse you, for getting the representation and the help you need to get rid of them, and for support and assistance when you have to break free of them and start your life again anew. A lot of them are geared toward women and people that look like women in relationships with men or peopple who look like men. But there are resources for you, no matter what you look like, how you identify, and who you might be in a relationship with. Because we need you alive.]_

> And the Bastard grant us... in our direst need, the smallest gifts: the nail of the horseshoe, the pin of the axle, the feather at the pivot point, the pebble at the mountain's peak, the kiss in despair, the one right word.  
>  -Bujold, Paladin of Souls

Because sometimes that's what we need. One right word, or something equally small, placed correctly, that turns things back from the brink.

Or sometimes it's cold logic, knowing that the reasons why you would choose dying won't actually fix the problem, because you can do the maths and realize that even if you could get your optimum result, it wouldn't solve the issues. That kept me alive until things could get better.

Returning to the book, Robinton throws himself into his work to try and keep the memories at bay, which means he's present when it's confirmed that Lord Faroguy is dead (because another badly drummed reply to their inquiry raises major suspicions, and they send a runner to confirm things), that Farvene, the heir, has been killed in a duel with Fax, and Bargen, the next son, cannot be found. Which means Fax rules in High Reaches, because the Council to elect a new Lord Holder has to be convened at the request of an heir, and there have been no requests. Robinton attempts to persuade everyone around him that Fax's ambitions are greater than just High Reaches, and that the Lord Holds need to act, _now_. Melongel trots out "autonomy" and Robinton fires back that illegal possession does not entitle someone to that protection. Melongel points out they can't prove it. Minnarden and Robinton press Melongel to see if he can't get an alliance going, or at the very least spread the word to the neighboring holds to guard their borders against Fax. Robinton volunteers for reconnaissance, but Melongel tells him no, and that Gennell has arranged the necessary personnel for infiltration.

_[Even if they can't prove it, Chalkin's precedent and the amount of human rights abuses that Fax has already racked up should have all the Lords on his borders on high alert, if not coordinating with each other to step in, or to ask the dragonriders to step in, to the point where people should be seriously gearing up right now to crush Fax and stick his head on a pike as a warning to others about attacking the people of his own hold in such a way.]_

So Robinton goes on tour again, and when he comes across the border holder he talked to before, there's way more refugees than the last time.

> "More coming in all the time," Chochol told Robinton in a lugubrious voice, shaking his head at the terror that drove them from their holds. "Someone ought to do something about that man. They say he's got six, seven spouses, all of 'em pregnant." Then he chuckled and his droll face lit up. "Can't seem to get himself a son."  
>  Robinton laughed, too. "We don't need more of his ilk."

I realize that black comedy is a normal reaction to seeing a tragedy, but I can't see the humor value in a fertility joke at this point. Especially with the knowledge that those six or seven "spouses," since I can't see anyone freely consenting to betrothal, are going to be in pregnancy and childbirth until they die of it. Someone most certainly needs to do something about this, and since the Lords won't act...if only this story had been set post-Furiosa. _[That's Mad Max: Fury Road being referenced, on the idea that perhaps all of these spouses that Fax has could band together to either escape or to kill Fax for the way he treats them.]_

Coming back to Tillek is coming back to a giant pile of memories, and Melongel notices it enough to gently dismiss Robinton from his post and send him back to the Hall. That takes care of Chapter XIV, but it also sends Robinton back into danger. I hope Gennell has an assignment ready for him when he gets back.


	14. A Deluge Of Grief

The last two chapters were meant to give Robinton unnecessary pain, while advancing the Fax plot and slipping in the accident that made L'tol Lytol.

And F'lon talked Robinton out of his grief enough to get him functional again, before Melongel sent him back to the Harper Hall to get away from the memories.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapter XV: Content Notes: Parental Death**

The problem with that idea is made abundantly clear when Robinton gets back and hears someone playing his Sonata. Tracking it down to the source, he finds Merelan, Petiron, and instrumentalists playing it. This, understandably, sets Robinton off completely - his love song is being played by someone he hates. Merelan pleads with him to allow Kasia's memory to live on in the song.

And for once in his life, Petiron is not an asshole.

> Then his father cleared his throat. "The Sonata is the best music you've ever written," Petiron said, without a trace of condescension in his voice.  
>  Robinton turned slowly to look at the Mastercomposer.  
>  "It is," he said, and turning on his heel, he left the room.

Forgiveness requires much more than finally acknowledging ability, Petiron. But you finally figured out how to give a compliment to your son.

_[And it's still about skill on Petiron's terms. I realize that we're supposed to see this as Petiron trying to relate to his child in the best way he knows how, but this isn't actually helpful toward mending any of the things that caused the rift. Robinton finally gets his "well done, son," but it's far too late for that to be of any good at all. And it's not "sorry for your loss, this is hard," it's "love made you compose really beautiful music, so well done" without ever acknowledging the pain or the loss or the sorrow or anything else that came with the music.]_

Robinton can both acknowledge the skill of the practice and not want to be anywhere near that music, so he takes a trip out to try and get the memories out, but they won't go away. So it's a good thing when Gennell has an emergency and Robinton has to go to the South Boll area to take over for a harper with a broken leg. Merelan tells him the sonata got a standing ovation when played before he goes. _[Which is true, but also wrong, and it seems like whatever skill or empathy Merelan had with her son when he was younger is gone now, and she's trying to relate to him like he's Petiron, instead. Why would you say to someone "the song you wrote while you were in love with your dead wife got a standing ovation" when it should still be pretty clear that Robinton is still grieving and might not want to be reminded of the time he was in love.]_

Robinton, at South Boll, gets a few hints that grief might be passing, in that he attracts the attention of Laela, who is determined to "lift the sadness from his eyes" (which Robinton swore to do to Kasia), and who Robinton finds quite attractive. Laela is apparently a free spirit who gives her attentions as she will. Robinton is also reminded of a beat he started while trying to stay alive and awake at the ship during his honeymoon, and some notes start to coalesce in his head, as well. So composition seems to be returning.

Then F'lon comes to visit to announce the birth of his son by Larna, Fallarnon, who will grow up to be the Benden Weyrleader we know and...follow through the books. And two days later, Larna dies. (Robinton learns this by message.) Robinton sends his condolences, although he's jealous that F'lon has a son to remember her with.

Eventually, Robinton makes it back to the Hall, and corners the Masterhealer about his mother's health, receiving assurance that she's being looked after, and that Merelan is eating well but losing weight is a concern for her as well. And will go to Keroon on assignment, with a list of places not to go to, because those places are not welcoming to Harpers and consider the songs told to be lies. I still want to see this place, and not from the perspective of the Harpers themselves, because it would be fascinating. But there's only ever hints and mentions.

Before leaving, though, Robinton meets a person that doesn't officially exist (whom he has seen before when with Chochol, but was told to forget), who goes by the name Nip and reports directly to Gennell. Robinton asks about a Harper who didn't manage to escape Fax and is told he died in the mines. Both Nip and Robinton swear their revenge against Fax.

Robinton does his best to deal with doubters, copying out the Charter to leave behind so that people could see it, and runs into Nip again, dressed as a runner, who lets him in on how Gennell always knows where not to send a Harper - the spy network that Nip is part of. Nip also mentions that runner Station Masters are the people in the know, if Robinton ever needs to ask.

After Keroon and then Nerat, Robinton returns home to find his mother very clearly on her way out of life. Ginia has done all she can do, and fought to keep Merelan alive so that Robinton could be home for it. Petiron and Robinton keep her company, together, in her last days.

> The end was unexpectedly peaceful. He held one of Merelan's hands and Petiron the other, and she managed a feeble smile and a press of her gaunt fingers. Then she sighed, as Kasia had done, and was still. Neither man could move. Neither wished to relinquish the lifeless hand he held.  
>  It was Ginia who gently unwrapped their fingers and laid first one hand, then the other across her frail chest.  
>  Petiron broke first, sobbing bitterly. "How could you leave me, Merelan? How could you leave me?"  
>  Robinton looked up at the man who was his father and thought that Petiron was taking Merelan's death as a personal affront. But Petiron had been possessive of her all her life. Why should he change at her death? And yet, Robinton felt immense pity for the man.

Robinton is not likely wrong, but that particular phrasing is the same he used for Kasia, and that a lot of people use for the person they lost. _[Because a lot of people do take the death of their loved ones as a personal affront against them, whether by the person who dies or from a deity that has shown themselves to be capricious and cruel. Besides, this is also entirely in character for Petiron, since he has lived his entire life up to this point with people, especially Merelan, going out of their way to smooth things over for him. Now Petiron might have to learn how to live without everyone bending over backward for him, and even if he doesn't realize it consciously, he might be scared of finding out what everyone really thinks about him.]_

Also, before someone touches off the fireworks that are about to happen, I might note that grief has us say and do terrible things to each other. Sometimes it's saying what we don't actually mean. Sometimes it's finally saying the things we've been meaning to say all along.

> "Father..." he said, rising slowly to his feet.  
>  Petiron blinked and looked at his son as if he shouldn't be there. "You must leave. She was all I ever had. I must be alone with her in my grief."  
>  "I grieve, too. She was my mother."  
>  "How can you possibly know **my** pain?" The older man clutched at his chest, fingers digging into fabric and flesh.  
>  Robinton almost laughed. He heard an inarticulate sound come from Ginia and held up his hands to answer for himself.  
>  "How could I possibly know, Petiron? How can you say **that** to **me**? I know far too well how you must feel right now."  
>  Petiron's eyes widened and he stared at his son, remembering. Then his sobbing renewed, his spirit so devastated by Merelan's death that Robinton, moving without thought, came around the bed and took his father in his arms to comfort him.  
>  Petiron never wrote another note of music. Merelan had been his inspiration. Her death altered him as she could have wished he had altered during her lifetime. He and Robinton never became friends, but Petiron became easier in his son's company. Master Gennell remarked on how much grief had mellowed the man.

Heartbroken, instead of incensed. I'm surprised, frankly. Losing the only thing he cared about did quite the number on Petiron.

Not soon after this, Betrice dies of a heart attack, and Halanna reappears, "now a sedate and plumply happy spouse and mother," to ask if she can sing for the funerals of Merelan and Betrice because "[i]n spite of what a nasty child I was then, it was those two who finally stuffed some sense in my conceited head," and I'm immediately off of grief and straight back into anger, because there was a lot of abuse that happened long before any "sense" came around, and Halanna still believes she deserved it for being who she was. I'm also giving the author a stinkeye for portraying Halanna as happy and fatter in her domestic bliss, daring us to notice that her attitude changed significantly once she both accepted the role the patriarchy had laid out for her and in losing the body that turned heads when she was younger. Halanna might be the most happy person on Pern, through her own choosing, and completely content with her life, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and there's not _nearly_ enough of that here for me to accept the claim.

So Halanna sings, and it's good, and Gennell asks Robinton to find more women for the hall, because there aren't as many studying at the Hall any more. Halanna sings, Maizella sings, but not as many. Which makes the second extraordinary claim in as many pages, because we're supposed to believe that women just stop coming of their own accord, and there's no shift in the Hall or the world outside that would account for this.

Time passes, and Robinton ascends to his Mastery, still being sent out a lot on assignment. F'lon has his second son, Famanoran, by Manora, who is fostering his first son. He complains about a queen dragon with no interest in mating because her rider is afraid of heights, and that nobody in the Weyr wants to take him seriously about the danger of Fax, who Robinton refuses to title since he hasn't had the formal confirmation.

> "Oh, he's busy." F'lon's grin turned wickedly malicious. "Still can't get any male issue, and he's plowing any pretty girl he can find. Isn't safe to be female in High Reaches any longer. And his dueling? Ha!" He raised both hands again. "He's got a grand way to rid himself of any who'd oppose him. He insults a man to the point of a fight. And he always wins. Then he puts in those oafs and dimwits of his in any prosperous hold...and continues to encroach wherever he can."

My suspension of disbelief is being sorely tested in this chapter. Mostly because someone who pillages across the countryside, kills and insults people and rapes women has a tendency to end up dead. Fax can delay this problem with competent lieutenants and administrators that can keep his holdings running, but he apparently doesn't have that. There should be enough blood feuds and the Pernese equivalent of assassination contracts out on Fax that someone has to get lucky. Possibly even those "pretty girls" he is apparently trying to get pregnant. Someone might even offer themselves to him for a night, only to stab him through the head with a needle, knife, or other thing. There should be more stories about how Fax is obscenely lucky to avoid dying so much.

Time passes, and F'lon gets his wish to be Weyrleader of Benden. More pressing for Robinton is a rash of Harpers being attacked and beaten on their way to or from their assignments, as well as an increasing number of holds that want them only for music or not at all. One is beaten so severely that talking will be painful and he will never play again with the same skill due to his broken hands and fingers. Robinton rides out with an escort of five bruisers to bring Evenek, that Harper, back to the Hall. Lord Grogellan is appalled at the treatment and makes a formal protection promise. (We also find out Ginia's assistant is Oldive.)

Gennell starts sending Robinton out more frequently, often as his representative, everywhere he can go, before finally admitting to Robinton the reason for doing so: he wants Robinton to succeed him as the Masterharper. Robinton protests that he's much too young, but Gennell says they need someone young. Robinton says that are others to take the job. Gennell says they endorsed, or at least didn't actively oppose, Robinton. Gennell says he's had Robinton picked out for the job since he saw the young Robinton talking to the dragons. Robinton realizes how well he's been snookered, but the conversation ends with the birth of a small baby girl at Ruatha. Hello, Lessa.

A couple days after that, Robinton witnesses Grogellan's wife Winalla refusing to let Grogellan have an appendectomy, because it's "barbaric" to cut into him. Ginia and Oldive note that it's much more like removing tonsils, which happened to Winalla when she was young.

Because Grogellan gets no surgery, he dies in intense pain later that day. Groghe is elected lord of Fort. Not soon after, Fax forcibly conquers Crom. And yet, the only things the Lords do is drill their own border patrols, despite clear evidence of a massive breach of autonomy and the Charter. There's no trial in absentia, as what happened with Chalkin, and nobody seems to be able to find the honking precedent or the right section of the Charter to justify mobilization and pushing Fax back. Even if you could only get them to sign on to brushing Fax back to the borders of High Reaches, that would be sufficient action to point out that they aren't going to stand for that particular issue. And if Fax complains, they can hash it out properly among peers.

The next winter, Gennell dies, and there's an election scheduled for spring. Nobody wants to leave the Hall without a leader for that long, though. Robinton tries to get away from it all by hanging out in the kitchen, where Silvina, now headwoman, helps keep him in good supply. And, apparently, in good sexy times, since she's apparently "quite willing to bed him whenever he stopped long enough at the Hall to renew their friendship." But then the drums stop for a moment, and it's official - the Masters Harper have elected Robinton to be the MasterHarper by unanimous decree. Then there's the party.

And then comes the morning. Robinton is hung over, but Petiron is in his office.

> "As one of your first duties as MasterHarper, Robinton, I wish you to assign me to a post," his father said in a stiff and formal tone. "I think you will do well in this office. I wish you the best, but I feel that my presence here in the Hall might cause you embarrassment..."

There's a little back-and-forth about how necessary it is, but Petiron insists and Robinton knows he's right. Petiron picks for himself Half-Circle Seahold, a place that Robinton exclaims is the "back end of nowhere" and Petiron justifies as being a place that hasn't had a harper in six Turns. Robinton acquiesces, even as he worries about the fact that Half-Circle is extremely isolated. And that's chapter XV, with deaths and elections and a self-imposed exile.

_[Which gets Petiron to Half-Circle to find Menolly, as we need him to be, but there's a lack of, well, everything regarding Petiron and Robinton. It's the sort of thing where the grief and tragedy that befell Petiron through the loss of Merelan seems to be punishment enough for him that all the other possible problems get left to the wayside and quietly never brought up again. Even though that's also the tragedy that befell Robinton, losing his mother and also, losing his wife. If there ever were a moment of potential bonding, it's in their shared grief, but that moment never really happens. Because the gulf between them is still too wide. To some degree, I would have expected Robinton to have strongly suggested that his father take a post and get very far away from him as soon as it became clear that Petiron wasn't composing and Robinton was being groomed to be Gennell's successor, but instead, we have Petiron doing it himself because his ego won't really allow him to be in the same place as his son and to have to take orders from him.]_

Pern is terrible, and the politicking is yet to come.


	15. Sons and Subterfuge

Last chapter, Robinton and F'lon lost people dear to them, found other people who were compatible with them, and ascended to the most powerful positions they could obtain - Benden Weyrleader and Masterharper of Pern.

Petiron did not oppose the election of Robinton, but immediately afterward exiled himself to Half-Circle Sea Hold, so as to not be an impediment to the new head of the Craft.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapters XVI and XVII: Content Notes: Fat-Shaming, Starvation, Ablism**

The chapter begins with Robinton adjusting to his new responsibilities and perks, which include dragonrider transport from F'lon to wherever he needs to go. Robinton is still looking for women for the Hall, but he isn't getting presented that many candidates to apprentice - they apparently have their eyes on boys more than a career in singing. This still does not make actual sense, mostly because I can't see Pernese families wanting to provide dowry or otherwise for the espousal of all their daughters.

Robinton and F'lon are also making no headway on trying to convince the Lords that Fax is dangerous. At least one Lord posits that Fax holds High Reaches (and everything else, by extension?) totally legitimately, since no other men with better claim have come forth with it. Nip comes by later with news that Fax has made inroads into Tillek after Melongel was thrown from, and then crushed by, a horse that was poisoned to death. Nip suspects Fax, claiming that "Fax buys loyalty and service--with the added incentive of fear." as a general philosophy, backed with systematically eliminating opposition and then espousing himself to the remaining woman so as to be Lord Holder legitimately, and I'm still not quite on board with that being as effective as it is, because it's got enough moving parts in it that someone can grind the gears with a wrench. Lessa can't be the only character who is performing sabotage acts against Fax.

Nip asks a question that Robinton answers without realizing the in he has to build a case against Fax, which is a detail that wouldn't exist but for the last book.

> "[...] He's got many spouses now, more than a sane man would wish. Doesn't the Charter restrict how many a man can have?"  
>  "No," Robinton replied thoughtfully, pinching at his upper lip. "Actually, it doesn't deal with personal relationships at all--at least the usual variety, though it is specific in the **violations** \--" Robinton paused. "--such as rape or other unwanted acts."

Ding-ding-ding! Chalkin's border guards were given the chop because they committed rape. I'd bet good money that the women that Fax keeps espousing did not do it under free and full consent, especially if their relatives were murdered to put them in a vulnerable position. And if they're aren't any other relatives to hold hostage, any of those currently pregnant women would be witness and evidence of rape and able to testify to that matter. Because even if Pern wants to define things narrowly, there has to be more than enough bad behavior by Fax's soldiers and subordinates that they can be picked off, either one by one or in droves, by a force that the Lords authorize to arrest anyone who has evidence or testimony against them of that behavior. Once again, the Lords can use the Charter to stop Fax. They won't, because timelines and because trying to backport the Charter is causing more continuity errors than trying to fix them, but they could.

_[And, as was pointed out by commenters, the Charter does deal with personal relationships, too, with the long list of potential penalties for violating marriage and child support contracts. So there's another possible in for using the Charter against Fax, by claiming he's not fulfilling his requirements according to the espousal contracts he made. (And if he doesn't have those contracts, then he's on the hook for assault. Seeing these two books in succession is aggravating, mostly because we have to have the conditions that produced the first book, but we have all of this new information from subsequent books that is either being jammed in or ignored, rather than someone taking a hard look at everything that's been written so far and finding a way of threading the needle correctly.]_

Melongel dies before the year is out, Oterel is confirmed as his successor, and Silvina informs Robinton that she's pregnant. She also refuses to espouse him, saying that their current agreement suits them more, and that Robinton still says the name of his dead spouse when he's sleeping at night.

Most tellingly, in my opinion, is that Silvina admits to loving many harpers, although Robinton doesn't know of any other partners Silvina is keeping, and that Robinton doesn't deny when F'lon ribs him about being "enthusiastically welcomed by many holder girls for the pleasure he gave above and beyond the music he played." So it seems like both of them are on board with polyamory, and Robinton appears willing to give Silvina the same freedom he takes for himself. Functional polyamory is not a thing I expected to see in Pern. (Is it really going to work this way?)

_[It will for them, although, as is noted in the comments to the original, we never hear nor see any of Silvina's other lovers. And it'll be a contrast when we get to Fiona, who has polyamory absolutely on the page right there for everyone, and she and hers are pretty terrible at actual communication, much less figuring out the contours of their arrangement, or anything else related to having a functional polyamory.]_

The Hall is also still shedding girls, to the point where Robinton is begging Halanna to come back and take a Mastery, just to help with the reputation of being a place for women and girls. Halanna turns him down. And yet we're still supposed to believe that it's attrition that's causing the problem. Right now, I'm wondering if the harpers have a reputation for promiscuity, based on the enthusiasm they receive from the Master Harper, and that's what is driving away all the women. It would set things up nicely for the cottage and Dunca.

Silvina gives birth, and Robinton gets to feel the joy of being a father...of a special-needs child, because apparently the umbilical cord wrapped around his son's neck during development and starved it of necessary oxygen. And Robinton watches his dreams crumble all away as the son he's going to have won't have any of his legacy of brilliance of music. If I were going to call it foreshadowing, this is the part where we start to realize Robinton is going to be Petiron's son after all, when it comes to parenthood. Thus goes Chapter XVI.

Chapter XVII starts with Nip returning, and this time he has an idea of how Fax acquires his new holdings.

> "He visits his intended victim, all smiles and reassurances, compliments the man on his fine holding. Buys whatever the hold produces, pays over the mark for what he calls best quality. He asks how such yields are achieved on such poor, good, medium, excellent soil...under such trying, hot, cold, dry conditions...in short."  
>  [...and then, having bought their friendship...]  
>  "Now, he's very canny about how he insults the Harper Hall, especially if the hold in question has one, or is on a well-traveled route. But he is careful with his slanders." Nip pantomimed a dagger being inserted gently in and then slowly twisted. "He gives examples of harper lies and exaggerations. So he plants the seeds of doubt. **Then** he invites the man and his family to come to **his** next Gather, and sometimes, if the gullible fool believes him, he offers to send men to tend the herdbeasts or the fields, or whatever, while the holder and his family are away."  
>  "So that his men become familiar with the place."  
>  "Exactly." Nip took a sip. "One man and his family never did get back from that Gather, and so Fax has acquired Keogh Hold recently."

It's a pretty slick con, actually, which seems at loggerheads with the brash and insult-throwing Fax of earlier. Or the one who was dropping hints about what he was about to do to Robinton earlier. I'm okay with Fax being smart, strong, and ruthless, but it would help if that had been foreshadowed more, because the Fax we have to make comparisons with is definitely not painted in that way, and who appeared to have acquired holdings through brute force more than anything else. _[Although there's still the distinct possibility that Fax is exactly the sneering, pompous fool that we have seen all this time and the person who is **actually** responsible for all of this is a lieutenant or an advisor who understands how this all works and has laid out a plan and script for Fax to follow to keep the good times rolling. And who might do things like vet potential brides and others to make sure they're not going to kill Fax at the first opportunity they get. Whomever this nameless soul is, they would make an excellent Harper.]_

All the same, Robinton chooses not to pay attention to Fax in light of the running of the Hall he has to do. _[Although Nip continues on assignment and gathering information and the like, so maybe when I said "doesn't pay attention" it's more like "chooses not to confront Fax directly until he has his power base behind him."]_ He instead sends F'lon congratulations on a good mating flight, which prompts a visit. Robinton asks how it got done.

> "First we starved the pair of them. I never thought a queen dragon could be so difficult. All the bronzes were needed to snatch anything she killed. She'd sneak out of the weyr at night to get something to eat."  
>  "Who? Jora or Nemorth?"  
>  F'lon blinked and then howled with laughter. "Actually I meant Nemorth, but I think Jora probably had edibles secreted about the place, because we never did manage to get her down to a decent size. But Nemorth was our prime worry. Like rider, like dragon can be all too true. But we succeeded in keeping her from doing more than blood the next time she turned bright gold. My, she was a nasty one in flight." F'lon shook his head from side to side, with an odd grin on his face. "Simanith proved his worth. Caught her high and did her well." Then he exhaled noisily.  
>  Robinton was hard pressed not to laugh out loud, wondering how F'lon had managed his unwieldy mate on that occasion, but there were certain matters one did not discuss, even with such a good friend as F'lon.

Why is _this_ suddenly out of bounds, Robinton? Because you think it would be embarrassing to have F'lon recount his tale of sexytimes with Jora? This is usually complete bro-fodder, swapping stories of having sex with the unattractive and laughing about how their low self-esteem made them not just an easy lay, but made them feel in love.

In our times, there's an entire category of porn dedicated to bigger bodies. And classically, bigger bodies have been considered more attractive because it meant someone was well fed and likely able to bear children better. And Halanna was just described as being plump and happy and docile. Yet we're supposed to see Jora as grotesquely fat, I guess, past the point of zaftig and into some other category, where F'lon and Robinton both clearly see it as a chore, and perhaps a favor, to do her in the mating flight. And, because Weyrleader solidarity, F'lon couldn't pass it off on someone else, as had been explained to Debera in an earlier book.

I remember, though, that the lust passes from dragon to human, so I don't see why anyone would consider it weird or somehow embarrassing that F'lon and Jora had sex. Surely they've done enough of their own of knocking boots with whomever is handy that nobody has high ground to judge someone else's mating sex.

And furthermore, remember that _Jora is afraid of heights_ , so the entire experience was probably highly traumatic for her. F'lon can certainly stand to be embarrassed for his views.

_[More Doylistically, I think this is one of those cases where the author lacks the experience of the locker room and the culture that she's sketching out. Dragonriders have always been portrayed as machos, with their strength and virility and decision-making powers that make the women go weak in the knees and enjoy their domination, but it's always been from the perspective of writing romance tropes, rather than the perspective of knowing what kind of boasts and commiseration would be present for the recounting of how poor F'lon ended up having to fuck Jora for the Weyrleadership, and isn't it terrible for him that he had to do a fatty for it. This is the sort of thing you hope your early readers will flag up as important and then you can get some help fixing. These days, hanging out in the right Internet forums might give you all that you need to get it right, but before that, I dunno, would it have been mildly embartassing to talk to someone about what their locker rooms were like?]_

After F'lon leaves, Robinton is visited by the relatives from Merelan's side, who bring him a gift - Sebell, who is his grand-nephew. And has all the musical skill that Robinton wishes his own son, "poor re[DACTED] Camo" had. Sebell apprentices to the Hall and essentially makes himself Robinton's shadow and assistant. Sebell also takes a liking to Camo. Silvina finally convinces Robinton to stop mourning the son he wishes he had and raise the one he does (a thing we suspect is made much easier by having Sebell around, as kin, to pour all of that musical knowledge and pride into), and so Robinton starts to avoid being like his father to his son.

Then comes the Hatching day and here comes more fat-shaming.

> Robinton could not fail to notice Jora on the other side of her queen, a large bulk in a vivid green gown that did nothing to hide her obesity or enhance what had once been a pretty face.  
>  [...Robinton bows politely, as is custom...]  
>  Jora gave him a nervous grin, her fat fingers making wet creases in the stuff of her gown. He always tried to be nice to her, knowing that F'lon gave her a difficult time.

So Jora is also the victim of bad tailoring.

_[And, of course, of a narrative that wants to punch her at any opportunity it is given. I also wonder what Robinton considers being nice to her, with as much as he is F'lon's bro in all regards.]_

_[It's cocowhat time!]_

It's beginning to sound a lot more like Pern is 20th century Terra, where fashion designers gave no fucks at all about bodies that were different from their ideal and clothing was mass-produced in ways that were meant to hug the body and expose any imperfections in it, because 20th and 21st century Terran mores said that fat bodies were shameful and didn't deserve to look good in anything.

This Pern, however, is supposed to be an expy of Latin Christendom. There are published works on what fashion looked like in at least some part of that time. And some guesses, based on scraps and statues and art that survives, what clothing may have looked like in times earlier than that.

I'm sure, then, it comes to no surprise to any of you that for those time periods and the non-mechanized construction methods generally used, **_CLOTHING DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY!_**

_[Which is to say that Jora should be able to be clothed in such a way that doesn't make everyone think of her as a grotesque, whether because it's blocky and would drape well on her or because there's enough available tailoring to take that kind of clothing and make it look even better on her.]_

The next sequence is Impression. Fallarnon impresses Mnementh first, and Famanoran collects the last dragon of the clutch, Canth. There's another opportunity to fat-shame Jora, comparing her "cleaning the food from the overflowing plate in front of her" to Manora eating "slowly and with relish, as dignified as she had been as a young girl."

The narrative and I need to have what is occasionally called a "come to Jesus meeting" about the way Jora keeps getting treated as ugly because fat and all the very crude stereotyping of her the narrative is engaging in so that we don't think of her as anything but fat and piggish.

The narrative cuts back to the Fax problem, where Nabol is the next Hold to fail, and the Lord Holder of Telgar, Terathel, makes it a point to invite Fax to his Gather, so that he can talk to him very specifically about not pushing his troops into Telgar again, after a large force of Fax's was forcibly evicted from Telgar by a larger force of Telgarians.

Then we get to see an interesting interplay of how rank works (after pointing out that F'lon, the Weyrleader, is of the same rank as a Lord Holder) and how Fax's team works to openly defy social conventions.

> He saw the beginning: a lad wearing Fax's colors knocking into Larad, at F'lon's side, and then irritably demanding an apology.  
>  Larad was surprised and started to comply but F'lon stopped him.  
>  "You knocked into Lord Larad, boy," F'lon told the lad. " **You** will apologize to young Lord Larad. He ranks you."  
>  "I'm with Lord Fax, dragonrider." The boy's tone and sneer were contemptuous.

So, that's three norms broken - deliberate contact, demanding an apology of someone of higher rank, and disrespecting a dragonrider (who is also of higher rank). What normally follows when norms are broken?

> Robinton had not yet reached the little group when F'lon backhanded the boy, cutting his lip.  
>  "You will keep a civil tongue in your head and you will apologize to Lord Larad, who is of Telgar Blood. I doubt you can claim even half-Blood rights."  
>  "Kepiru? Who gave you a bloody lip?" And a heavyset man, also wearing Fax's colors and the shoulder knot of a captain--though those were generally reserved for ships' captains--pushed through those watching the encounter.  
>  Robinton felt the tension in the air as he reached F'lon.  
>  "Now, what appears to be the problem?" he said in his best conciliatory manner.  
>  Larad gratefully turned to the MasterHarper. He was confused and highly embarrassed.

Right. Norms attempt to reassert themselves, and in Pern's case, that usually involves physical violence. As one might guess, however, this is a trap. Either they get the result of Larad apologizing and being confused at someone else's aggression, or someone reacts to the incident and retaliates strongly. That always draws attention and often allows the instigator to play the part of the aggrieved.

> "That...dragonrider--" The captain's tone was as contemptuous as Kepiru's had been "--has struck my young brother, insulting our Blood. The matter requires redress."  
>  "Redress from your brother to Lord Larad most certainly," F'lon said, bristling.  
>  [...Robinton is getting the feeling it's a setup, and is doing his best to calm F'lon down...]  
>  "Enough," F'lon said, shaking off Robinton's restraining hand. "It was as deliberate as the slurs on dragonriders."  
>  "Ha! Dragon **women**!" the captain said in a scathing tone.  
>  The insult inflamed F'lon. "I'll show you dragon **women** ," he said and drew the knife from his belt.  
>  The captain's knife seemed to appear with uncanny speed in his hand and Robinton's fears increased.

Now that weapons are involved, any hope of a peaceful result are out, although Robinton tries (and gets cut on the arm and insulted by the captain for it). F'lon, of course, is too much of a hothead not to fight, and when he gets cut first, he only gets wilder, which gets him killed because he's fighting an opponent that gives no fucks about his status and is more than willing to use every dirty trick he knows. Robinton orders the captain seized before he can disappear. Larad is very confused, and Robinton quietly communicates to Tarathel, when he arrives, that this is not an accident.

And for this massive breach of protocol, there is actually a legal punishment. (And it can't be from the Charter, because it specifically mentions dragonriders!) Immediate exile is the sentence for deliberately killing a dragonrider if the are witnesses that observe it, and while R'gul hesitates because of no trial, C'gan is more than willing to step up to the task of taking the murderer out to exile.

Then Fax arrives and demands the release of his captain. Tarathel tells Fax to fuck off, as he's in charge here and it's very clear what happens in this situation. Fax demands again, this time with backup.

Robinton is not having it.

> **"Telgar! Defend your Holder!"**  
>  With a roar of protest, Fax and his men were overwhelmed as those around them grabbed at their arms and bodies, preventing them from drawing their weapons. Even R'gul and S'lel assisted while C'gan tried to keep a firm grip on the murderer. Suddenly the blue rider cried for assistance as the man sagged and collapsed, a dagger through one eye.  
>  And the dragons bellowed with triumph.  
>  One look at the hilt of that slender throwing knife and Robinton knew who had cast it. He marveled that Nip had been able to fling it so accurately through the milling crowd.

So Fax and his cronies are run out of the country, Robinton drums the news, and then he and Nip debrief and Robinton heads onward as fast as he can to Ruatha to warn them about Fax.

There's a problem here, though. Specifically, _why is Fax not dead?_ Or at the very least, not under heavy guard and house arrest by Terathel? _A man **he claimed responsibility for** just committed and was convicted of murder of a Weyrleader_. He and his entourage were subdued and presumably stripped of their weapons in the riot. They have very clearly violated the autonomy of another Holder to dispense justice according to the law, and then interfered again in trying to obstruct that justice from being carried out. They assaulted the closest thing this world has to a judge. If there are any laws about a Gather truce, those have been broken. There are _so many charges_ that Fax can be brought up on, either directly or because of his failure to enforce order among his subordinates. It probably won't be hard to find enough evidence to convince people that the entire thing, top to bottom, was a setup to provoke F'lon _[or, as is noted in the comments, a plot to kill either Larad or Terathel, probably with the idea of then getting Fax to marry Thella and claim Telgar as his hold as well. Which, heh, good luck trying to keep Thella in check, apart from basically saying that she gets to rule Telgar all by herself, with no oversight or need to account herself to anyone else.]_

There is _**no**_ Watsonian reason why Fax should be able to return to his own territory, much less leave Telgar Hold.

And the what the fuck continues with Lord Kale being dismissive of the account of F'lon's death and Robinton's plea for Kale to post sentries and harden himself against Fax. Ruatha is a small hold, now on Fax's expanded borders. Fax has already shown an interest in expanding his territory well beyond his own. Repeatedly. And with events that are too unlikely to be repeated coincidences. I know that for plot reasons, terrible things are yet to come, but you can only surprise someone and take over their territory so many times before everyone else around you gets suspicious that you're going to try them next. Especially if you're small and nommable.

Robinton returns to the Hall after a night in a Ruatha, Nip comes by and reports bad things still coming out of Telgar, that Lytol is still trying to make his living in High Reaches, and that Bargen, the other son of Faroguy, is currently camped out in High Reaches Weyr and running raids and harassment against Fax.

Hey look, we have an heir! So everyone will get right to disposing of Fax in a convenient way. Then you can have each of the conquered holds reassert their independence, Bargen can take over High Reaches, and badda-bing! Peace in the land.

_[Also, this should not be the only piece of resistance happening to Fax, given how he has subjected and conquered so many other holds, killed their rightful rulers, and proclaimed himself their lords. Unless he's got an overabundance of soldiers to try and keep everyone in line., he should have a Bargen in every one of his conquered holds at the very least. If not several of them, for each of the rightful sons who want to wrest control of their Hold back from Fax and that haven't already been killed. We'll hear about more of these efforts in the next chapter, but we should have been hearing about them all this time.]_

Of course it won't happen that way, and the justification given this time is that harpers are almost as reviled as dragonriders in Fax's territories. Except that's essentially Fax's rule, not Bargen's. So Bargen would need to go in with a full cabinet in mind and possibly be a little heavier on the hand with administrating for the first few Turns, but it's still doable.

And with that, we come to the end of the chapter. I'm starting to really get annoyed at all the missed opportunities to do Fax in, or otherwise justify raising an army or six and kicking his ass.

_[Especially after one of his men deliberately killed a dragonrider. For that rudeness by itself, Fax should, by the way the laws and rules work on Pern, be killed, regardless of what other sort of Charter-related things you can also tack on in this second version of the Ninth Pass that refuses to square at all with the first version. Because, having killed a dragonrider, and the Weyrleader at that. Fax should have a never-ending parade of dragonriders ready to duel him (or to skip the honorable bit and just stab him until he's dead) to avenge the wrong done them. Their honor would never allow a slight like that to slide. We know that this book is trying to recast Robinton, but it's making such a hash of everything by getting so many people to act out of character. Or on the wrong timeline.]_


	16. What Is The Sound Of One Man Snapping?

Last chapters, Robinton got a son, who is special needs, and an apprentice, who is incredibly talented and can soak up things like a sponge.

Fax engineered F'lon's death, and the worst that happened to him is that his travel visa was immediately revoked, instead of his life.

**The Masterharper of Pern: Chapters XVIII and XIX: Content Notes: "Mercy" infanticide ideation, fat-shaming, abuse,**

This chapter opens with what should have been going on all the time - Nip reports, on his travels, that mysterious acts of sabotage are plaguing Fax's territories. Timber burnt, grain blighted, mines collapsed, fishing ships disappear, rebellions in the provinces which are put down brutally, but otherwise nothing that overthrows Fax, but does keep his energy focused on trying to keep his territory together.

Terathel dies, Larad is confirmed, and there's a problem in the account of such things.

> There was a brief flurry when Larad's elder half-sister, Thella, insisted that the Conclave had to hear her right to the Holding. Lord Tesner of Igen, the most senior of the Holders, was outraged at her impudence and refused her admittance. The other Lord Holders and Masters were only too happy to second his motion. Robinton looked for her during the following reception, wanting to see a woman who was brave enough to speak up as eldest in the Bloodline by there was no sign of her. He often wondered what happened to her because she disappeared from Telgar Hold shortly afterward.

I'm mostly calling bullshit on the idea that Robinton wanted to meet the brave girl, since he's not doing too great on the bit where girls are flocking to the Hall. And the narrative makes no note of his vote on the proposal to reject Thella. The narrative is covering your ass, Robinton.

_[This also screws with the timelines pretty significantly, as it has Thella happening before Fax dies. Except that Fax dying is what starts Aramina on her way home, so unless we have a significant period of time where Thella terrorizes Telgar before Aramina and family head home from there, then the timelines have been completely knocked off-kilter.]_

And tries to do so big time when this gem appears.

> Robinton wished he had more contact with [F'lon's sons], and not only because they were F'lon's lads. He could have wished for one of them as his. He had once wished that Camo wouldn't survive his first Turn, as so often happened to babies.

_[Double cocowhat, plus one more thing/]_

You are a terrible person, Robinton. And your attitude is still far too common among parents of disabled children, or children on the autism spectrum, and even here in 21st century Terra, we have people _praising infanticide_ as a way of relieving the poor suffering parent of their burdensome child.

Furthermore, what's happened to the state of medicine if we've gone from "we can perform an appendectomy on you" to a clearly high infant mortality rate. Midwifery and obstetric care can't have taken that big a nosedive in this short time period, right?

Nip arrives, reports Fax is up to something, belatedly realizes what, and both he and Robinton ride to Ruatha to try and prevent the tragedy we already know has happened. Nip and Robinton realize they're too late, and ride immediately to Fort to sound the alarm. The Lords ride in to demand Fax knock it off, and Fax calls them out to invade him, if they want him gone that bad, and threatens them that he'll kill them all for trespass on his territory if they don't get out by nightfall. The Lords leave, and then set to arguing about what they could have or should have done to get Fax to listen. Robinton splits off from that group, because he's pissed and has no intention of listening to recriminations and what-ifs.

And yet, they apparently can't unite enough right now, in their rage, to raise a force to surround Fax and then meticulously invade him from all sides and grind him into dust? They've had every pretext and justification in front of them. They've just seen slaughter and invasion. They have every right under the Charter to blockade, starve, and crush Fax. _Why aren't they?_

_[Especially those Lords that are now on Fax's new borders. They should be concerned they are next and move to strike first long before Fax gets an opportunity to do them what he has so far successfully done. But, for whatever, reason, they're content to sit there and threaten Fax, and then twiddle their thumbs or otherwise retreat, scared, when Fax says "Boo." at them. After the first annexation, everyone else should have been on high alert about Fax. Even if someone, somehow, truly believes that everything has been accidents that always mysteriously benefit Fax, and somehow steadfastly refuse the evidence in their own eyes, there's got to be a spot at some point where the denial isn't possible any more. Which I say with a straight face, having suffered through the first term of the 45th president of the United States, having seen people still deny the reality of systemic racism and the ineffectiveness of police forces to do their jobs, and through however long this will be toward the eventual end of SARS-CoV-2 with all the people that refuse to take the virus and its effects seriously, despite the evidence of their lying eyes. I get it, but allow us the delusions that we need to get through our day, okay?]_

Because the plot says we have to wait, or the continuity won't line up. Some good the Charter has done, having been so meticulously retroactively applied to that continuity. It made much more sense when the Charter was lost to everyone.

The rest of the chapter is essentially Nip telling Robinton it was a bad idea to do the thing. Chapter XIX opens up with real progress on the matter: The Crafts, mostly silent to this point, say "get forked, Fax" and pull out as many of their personnel as they can and refuse, in the face of bribes and lucrative incentives, to go back to those spaces. The Healers are the only ones who don't, Oldive says it's a matter of principles, and nobody gives him or the Healers grief over it.

Then there's a training montage, of sorts, that plays out over _five Turns_ while Robinton (and everyone else, apparently,) waits for instability to topple Fax from the inside. Sebell turns out to be ferocious at physical exercises and a quick hand and mind in helping everyone else out, gathering his journeyman rank, and being sorely missed by Robinton on his year abroad at Igen. Sebell also suggests that Traller, an excellent drummer with a penchant for shirking work and playing pranks, might be best apprenticed to Nip. Which is a smash, and Trailer becomes Tuck, Nip's shadow and oh my gods the puns are terrible.

As much as Sebell is essentially young Robinton, Tuck is young Nip and delivers the news that someone is seriously sabotaging Ruatha, who is on their fourth (fifth?) steward without any ability to turn a profit.

> "Hmm. That's interesting. A kind of subtle rebellion?"  
>  Tuck gave the sort of snort that Nip affected. "With that bunch of drudges? They're the most useless incompetents I've seen. And since I've been north--" He gestured with a thumb. "--I've seen every sort of way to avoid hard work that's been invented. And then some. The only jobs that get done in a halfway decent fashion are helped along by an overseer with a whip standing over the workers. Fax has only so many men and too many holdings." He grinned broadly. "Though his supply of metal-knotted whips seems inexhaustible."  
>  [...]  
>  "What could be happening there?" Robinton asked, more or less rhetorically. "If there is no one _able_ to foment trouble, is it trouble, or pure carelessness on the stewards' parts?"

The answer, I suspect, lies with Auric Goldfinger.

> Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.

Ruatha is on four or five here, and should be getting _intense_ scrutiny from Fax as to why it can't seem to do anything right. That should be opening up other opportunities for the outside forces to chip in and harry Fax and make him spread his resources dangerously thin. If the forces arrayed against Fax are interested in doing so, they could spark rebellion against him. But again, for plot reasons, nobody is doing anything, and it doesn't make any sense. Even one Weyr of dragons would be enough to obliterate Fax many times over. Admittedly, that ruins their non-interference policy, but we've all forgotten Chalkin at this point, and I don't think the dragons would suffer too much bad press for making Fax disappear _[, especially since they have that really convenient revenge-for-F'lon justification hanging right in front of them.]_

And because the narrative still can't let go of it, even in death, Jora is shamed.

> Robinton had had the details from a letter sent to Master Oldive by Lord Raid's journeyman healer, who had been brought by R'gul to try to keep the weyrwoman alive. Remembering how Jora had gorged herself at the Impression Feast--and that had been Turns ago now--he had no trouble believing that the woman had died of overeating. The healer had been appalled at the state she was in and had agreed that she should be interred **between**.

_[And there's a cocowhat for more fat-shaming.]_

Oh, _wow_. So now we get to the point where Jora is apparently so grotesque that even in death everyone agrees she should be dropped off in hyperspace rather than being buried in ground (as, presumably, the rest of everyone is). And "overeating" is not a cause of death. Choking is. Heart attack is. Suffocation is. Any one of a number of complications that can happen to someone is. But "overeating" is not a cause of death.

Furthermore, nobody seems to have given a tunnel snake's ass about _why_ someone might feed themselves that significantly. We already know Jora was violently afraid of heights. (And that Pern has no psychiatrists or psychologists.) Did having bulk help her feel more connected to the ground?

Did Jora have a condition that made her feel perpetually hungry, or one that made making fat way easier than burning it? What kind of food insecurity did Jora experience, and how much of that might be driving her choices regarding food and the way her body stored energy? The healers of a far future, pseudo-Latin Christendom society sound far too suspiciously like the medics of our own time, both in being willing to chalk up any malady to Death Fat and in refusing to consider any other course of action other than "have you considered losing weight?" as viable. The narrative said Jora was fat at the beginning of the series as well, but it's added an extra degree of fat-shaming in the interim.

Before the narrative dwells too much on this, a runner arrives with a message for Robinton to "do a Nip and Tuck" and make for Ruatha, because Fax and dragonriders are on a forced march there. Silvina and Sebell object to Robinton going, although Silvina eventually helps him perfect his drudge disguise.

So Robinton disguises himself and gets inside as a drudge to help clean the place up before Fax gets there, then gets sent down to take care of Fax's animals. And there's a moment that would be good character development if it weren't such a non-apology.

> Although he knew very well that the drudges in the Harper Hall and Fort Hold were well cared for, he discovered a heretofore unexpected sympathy for those whom life had deprived of the wit or energy to achieve more than such lowly positions.

Because unless you're visibly disabled, it can't be the machinations of a system designed to make most people subsistence farmers and essential house slaves as to why you're a drudge. You must be too lazy to apply yourself to better things.

Robinton eventually manages to trade himself up to guard thanks to a clothes change and therefore get himself in the room where it happens. I'm glossing over the fact that all the drudges and soldiers have rough speech phonetically rendered so as to make them bumpkins rather than the smooth-spoken Harpers and Lords. So we get to see the same scene from the beginning of the series from the perspective of Robinton, with the exception that apparently Robinton can feel ripples of power in the room (remember, the series started with the idea that Lessa had some amount of psi power and was using it), but knows it isn't the dragons or their riders that are the source of it. And a few other touches.

_[And we are also apparently retroactively making Robinton psi-sensitive, explaining the dragons talking to him, but also entirely wrecking other things in the original continuity. And his presence, presumably, would have been noticed by Lessa, since she's hiding herself and would be wary of anyone who looks like they're also trying to hide themselves. This book really is trying to make a 2.0 version of the Ninth Pass and hoping that none of the potential new fans would go back and read what came before. Or that those who have been fans all this time are willing to go along with the hagiographic treatment of Robinton and not care about what it does to the timeline.]_

> "Oh, dead, dead, poor Gemma. Oh, Lord Fax, we did all we could, but the journey..." She ran to where Fax was sitting.  
>  Casually Fax slapped her and she fell sobbing in a heap at his feet.  
>  Robinton saw [the eventual Benden Weyrleader] reach for his dagger hilt. Women in the Weyr were rarely treated in such a harsh manner. It would definitely go against a dragonrider's grain.

Excuse me while I laugh at this idea, given how the Benden Weyrleader will treat Lessa. Robinton should be more concerned that the son will die in the same way as the father. But that is not mentioned, and the scene continues, with Robinton noting the drudge (Lessa) is much less drudgey than she was when she left, before Fax punches her out and then gets into the fight with the Benden Weyrleader. At the utterance of the "dragonwomen" sneer, Robinton makes the comparison, noting that the son has his temper much better in hand than the father did.

Fight, death, et cetera. The younger of the two sons asks if anyone else wants to contest the outcome, and then Robinton finally gets a "second good look" at Lessa and recognizes who she is supposed to be. He also immediately tags her as the source of the strange behavior and waves of power, because she's a full Ruatha-blooded woman, and the narrative really hopes we haven't been fans since the beginning, so that we don't notice the tinkering to get the old to rejoin the new.

Nip frightens Robinton by appearing, and then Robinton users his position and the friendly dragonriders to convince Fax's remaining soldiers to head back without further issues. They set to getting rid of the body, getting Jaxom a nurse, and getting word out for successors to go in and claim their holds back. And the book ends with the watch-wher trying to protect Lessa and her disappearance to Benden.

The acknowledgements right after, on the other hand, rather than being a retread of narrative, are _quite_ fascinating.

> As usual, I am indebted to a variety of people for their help and input in writing this volume, not the least of whom is Master Robinton (aka Frederic H. Robinson), who was quite upset that I had ended his life so abruptly. I would suspect it of a tenor, but for a baritone to insist on another encore is almost unheard of. But I have recently been asked--via the impressive Del Rey Web site--to **explain** certain facts that had not previously been brought to light about Pern pre-Dragonflight history. As Robinton had a fine Pernese hand in most of it, it behooves me to tell the story from his viewpoint.  
>  [...]  
>  This time, my gratitude to Marilyn and Harry Alm as first readers is immense since they saved me from several time discrepancies and inconsistencies. Their knowledge of Pern is extensive and better remembered than mine at times.

And there's also many thanks to the musical helpers.

But that acknowledgement pretty well admits this book is Retcon: the Novel for Pern. And why it has such a hagiographic viewpoint toward Robinton and wanted to remake him into a much better person than he is.

I chuckle slightly at the comment about avoiding discrepancies and paradoxes, given that this is what the series book and the continuity editor is for, but also that the entire published canon is still being published, and so one could theoretically look things up as needed. But also a bit because having timeline readers when you are trying to rework the timeline entirely strikes me as the person who fixes the obvious holes and then leaves the things that are going to become holes soon enough as "repeat business."

_[Also, as noted in the commentary, not everyone who has holes pointed out to them chooses to fix them, and Pern is popular enough at this point that even crucial edits might be stet-ed and nobody believes that will drop the selling power of the novels. It's just interesting to see it acknowledged that there were problems that were presumably patched, and yet so very much of this is still time-continuity problems and changing characterizations and otherwise trying to do a stealth rewrite of the books that came before or cast them in a new light. There's still another novel that will take this 2.0 characterization as its givens, before the series is handed off to a different author to continue wreaking merry hell with the continuity.]_

And so, we put another novel in the books and instead turn our eyes to one of the short stories, "Runner of Pern," which might shed some light on the network of communications that traverses the planet.


End file.
